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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



LUTHER 



WARTBURG CASTLE. 

A Reformation Story of 1521. 



THE AUTHOR OF "FIFTY YEARS IN THE 
LUTHERAN MINISTRY." 







PHILADELPHIA I 
AN PUBLICATION 
1882. 


SOCIETY 



/Ml 



Copyright, 1882. 



10 - 3 L 



Westcott & Thomson, 
Stereotypes and Electrotyptrs, Philadtt. 



PREFACE 



Many of the facts recorded in this little 
book are familiar to readers of Reformation 
history, but they have never before been 
brought together in a continuous narrative 
in the English language. They have been 
collected from numerous books concerning 
Luther, and the well-authenticated facts alone 
have been incorporated in this volume. 

John G. Morris. 



CONTENTS. 



Albert, count of Mansfeld, 30. 
Albert, archbishop of Mayence, 67. 
Aleander, 19. 
Alphonzo Valdez, 20. 
Altenstein castle, 32. 
Amsdorf, 25. 

Black Bear Inn, 94. 
Bulla Ccena Domini, 75. 
Burkard von Hand, 23, 24. 

Capture of Luther, 9, 32. 

Carlstadt, 81. 

Caspar Sturm, imperial herald, 24. 

Charles V., 13. 

Charles, edict of, 17. 

Count von Meiningen, 35. 

Count von Henneberg, 43. 

D'Aubigne, 57. 

Edict of Charles V., 17. 
Edict, false, date of, 19. 
1 * 



6 CONTENTS. 

Edict, opinions about, 20. 

Elector Frederick, 83. 

Elizabeth, canonized, 10. 

Elizabeth, her tomb, 10. 

Emser, 66. 

Erasmus, 88. 

Erfurt, students of, 31, 94. 

Francis I., 22. 
Frankfort, 25. 
Frederick the Wise, 22, 34. 
Friedheim, 27. 

Gabriel Didymus, 81. 

George, duke of Saxony, 22, 26, 41, 

Hauler, ii. 

Hans von Berlepsch, 23, 34. 

Hermann, I, 9. 

Huss, John, 25. 

Hutten, Ulrich, 93. 

Jacob, Luther's brother, 26, 31. 

Jerome Schurf, 25. 

John Drach, 31. 

John Oswald, 83. 

John Petzenstein, 25. 

John Suaven, 25. 

Kessler, Swiss student, 94. 
Kotzebue, murder Of, I.I. 
Kranach, the artist, 26, 27. 
Krato, Meilius, abbot, 29. 



CONTENTS. 

Latormus, theologian, 65. 
Leipzig, battle of, 10. 
Lewis the Leaper, 9. 
Linden tree at Mora, 3. 
Luther, capture of, 9. 

at Worms, 14. 

room at Wartburg, 13. 

various letters, 26, 27, etc. 

courage of, 15. 

sale of his writings, 21. 

progress of his cause, 21. 

beech tree, 35. 

fountain, 34. 

portrait of, 38. 

age when captured, ^2. 

despondency, 45, 47, 52. 

industry, 80. 

temptations, 53. 

the Swiss students, 85. 

return to Wittenberg, 73. 

Marburg, 10. 

Marcolfus, 39. 

Matthesius, 51. 

Melanchthon, 93 (passim). 

Melchior Lotther, Luther's printer, 79. 

Michelet, 56. 

Minnesingers, 10. 

Mora, 31. 

Myconius, 55. 

Oppenheim, 24. 






8 CONTENTS. 

Paris, theological faculty, 66. 
Peter the Great, 13. 

Safe-Conduct, 16. 

Sand, Kotzebue's murderer, 11. 

Schmaltz, ir. 

Spalatin, 23, 28. 

Thuringia, 9. 

Wartburg Castle, 9, 14, 37, 47. 

celebration at, 10. 

Luther's treatment at, 14. 

Squire George, 52. 

hunting expedition, 52. 

legend of the inkstand, 56. 

Luther's temptations at, 53. 

Luther's studies at, 60. 

writings at, 61, 62, 64, 65, 67, 68, 71, 72, 75, 76, 77. 
Wittenberg, 25. 
Worms, 13. 

Zwickau Prophets, 81. 



Luther at Wartburg Castle. 



CHAPTER I. 

WARTBURG CASTLE, 

THE capture of Luther by order of the 
elector Frederick, after the departure of 
the Reformer from Worms, where he had 
been summoned to answer for his alleged her- 
esies, and his detention in the castle of Wart- 
burg from May 4, 1521, to March 2, 1522, 
have imparted an unspeakably great historical 
interest to this mediaeval fortress. It is sit- 
uated on a hill nearly fourteen hundred feet 
high, a few miles distant from the town of 
Eisenach, in the territory of Saxe-Weimar. 
It was erected in the year 1070 by Lewis the 
Leaper, and was for two hundred years the 
residence of the landgraves of Thuringia. In 
1264 that country came into the possession 

9 



IO LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

of Henry the Illustrious, who made the Wart- 
burg his residence until his death, and his 
successors continued to occupy it until 1406. 
After this time the castle underwent many 
changes. It was inhabited by various noble 
families, of whom history gives very unsatis- 
factory and unreliable information; but this 
much is certain — that it has been the scene 
of some events of great historical importance. 

It was the theatre of the poetic contests of 
the Minnesingers in the year 1200 under Her- 
man I., and was also rendered memorable in 
those early days as the residence of the holy 
Elizabeth, the wife of Herman, who, for her 
distinguished virtues, was canonized shortly 
after death. Various miracles are ascribed 
to her, and the steps leading to her tomb, 
in Marburg, are worn hollow by the knees 
of thousands of pilgrims who for nearly sev- 
en hundred years have visited her final rest- 
ing-place to be healed of their various mal- 
adies by touching her magnificently-jewelled 
coffin. 

The Wartburg was the scene of another 
stirring event within the present century. On 
October 18, 18 17, the anniversary of the bat- 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 1 1 

tie of Leipzig was celebrated by more than 
five hundred students and professors from 
twelve of the universities of Germany. It 
was also announced as a commemoration of 
the third century of the Reformation. Social 
festivities and religious services were held in 
the Hall of the Knights, and speeches which 
were considered seditious and revolutionary 
by the government spies, were delivered. At 
night some indiscreet students made a bonfire 
of the writings of such men as Kotzebue, 
Schmaltz, Haller, Kamptz, and others who 
were suspected of being inimical to the pop- 
ular rights of Germany. They also cast into 
the flames a corporal's staff, in imitation of 
the burning of the pope's bull by Luther. 
They performed many other objectionable 
acts which created great excitement through- 
out all Europe, and which became subject of 
grave consideration by several governments, 
who apprehended that these students aimed 
at introducing republicanism into Germany. 
The excitement culminated in the murder of 
Kotzebue by a student named Sand in March, 
1 8 19, which created a political ferment on the 
whole continent. 



12 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

For hundreds of years, Wartburg Castle had 
been suffered to fall into decay, but within the 
present century the grand duke of Weimar, to 
whom it belongs, has expended large sums 
in the restoration of it to its original size and 
imposing proportions. For many years it was 
nothing more than a magnificent ruin of the 
Middle Ages, but now the broken walls have 
been rebuilt, the shattered apartments have 
been renewed and refurnished according to 
the ancient pattern. The gates, corridors, 
archways, galleries, court, armory, bastions, 
chapel, towers, and all that constitutes the 
majesty of a fortress of that remote period, 
have been renovated, excepting the apart- 
ments occupied by Luther, and it is at pres- 
ent the ornament and the pride of the terri- 
tory. 

Thousands of visitors every year ascend 
the hill on which the castle is perched for the 
purpose of seeing the small and dingy apart- 
ment which is immortalized as the dwelling- 
place and study of Luther, during his seven 
months' captivity. There is no doubt that 
this is the veritable room in which the mighty 
Reformer wrote and prayed and wept. 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 1 3 

" Die Statte die ein guter Mensch betrat 
1st eingeweiht; nach hundert Jahren klingt 
Sein Wort und seine That dem Enkel wieder." * 

It is a poorly-furnished room, containing 
.nothing more than an old earthen stove, an 
awkwardly-constructed table, a worm-eaten 
chair — which was probably not Luther's orig- 
inal — an antique bookcase held together by 
large round-headed nails and heavy hinges, a 
few defaced portraits and the vertebra of a 
whale, which is given out as Luther's foot- 
stool. A relic undoubtedly genuine, covered 
with a small pane of glass, is seen above the 
door, and it is nothing more than the word 
" Peter " coarsely written in chalk, which 
tradition tells us is the original writing of 
Peter the Great when he visited the Wart- 
burg. The marks of the legend of Luther 
hurling his inkstand at the devil in the shape 
of a great fly which had annoyed him are still 
visible on the wall, but they are regularly 
freshened up for the benefit of all credulous 

* The place once trodden by a righteous man 
Is sacred ; centuries may revolve, 
And still the echo of his voice and deeds 
Is heard. 
2 



14 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

visitors. It seems almost a pity to break the 
charm of this little story, but it is proper to 
state that Luther's letters — which are the rich 
source of information concerning all events 
happening to him at this period — do not men- 
tion it, and it doubtless arose from the fact 
that in the activity of his imagination he at- 
tributed everything unfavorable in temporal 
or spiritual affairs to the direct personal agen- 
cy of the devil, just as he blamed the envious 
Satan for revealing the secret of his presence 
at the Wartburg. 

The small glass panes of the window which 
looks out upon the Thuringian Forest are 
glazed with strips of sheet-lead, and it opens 
in the middle like a double door. 

The occasion of Luther's sojourn at the 
Wartburg will appear from the following nar- 
rative. 

He had been summoned from Wartburg to 
a meeting at Worms by the emperor Charles 
V. to defend himself against the charge of 
heresy and insubordination. His friends ve- 
hemently urged him not to appear, but he 
persisted, and nothing could intimidate him. 
The boldness he displayed was heroic to the 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 1 5 

highest degree, and the whole world has heard 
of these exhibitions of Christian fortitude with 
unspeakable admiration. " The papists," said 
he on observing the anxiety of his friends, 
" do not wish me to go to Worms, but they 
'are longing for my condemnation and death. 
It matters not. Pray not for me, but for the 
triumph of the word of God. Before my 
blood has grown cold thousands of men in 
the world will have become responsible for 
having shed it. The most holy adversary of 
Christ, the father, the master, the generalis- 
simo of murderers, insists on its being shed. 
So be it : let God's will be done. Christ will 
give me his Spirit to overcome those minis- 
ters of error. I despise them during my life ; 
I shall triumph over them by my death. They 
are very busy at Worms in devising measures 
which shall compel me to retract, and this 
shall be my retraction : I said formerly that 
the pope is Christ's vicar ; now I assert that 
he is our Lord's adversary and the devil's 
apostle." 

Luther appeared before the august assem- 
bly,, composed of the emperor, numerous 
princes of the realm, many high ecclesiastical 



1 6 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

dignitaries and people of every rank and degree, 
the majority of whom were bitterly opposed to 
his doctrine and person. He valiantly main- 
tained his cause before this distinguished as- 
sembly, and stoutly refused to recant a single 
point unless proved erroneous from the Scrip- 
tures. After discussing the different doctrines 
with the most learned theologians of the Rom- 
ish Church and compelling the admiration of 
his worst enemies by his dexterity and flu- 
ency in debate, the profundity of his learning, 
the meekness of his spirit and his lion-hearted 
courage, he was permitted to leave Worms 
under the protection of " a safe-conduct " * 
from the emperor, although some of his ene- 
mies of high ecclesiastical and civil rank rec- 
ommended several measures for ridding the 
Church of this pestilent heretic. This " safe- 
conduct," or government protection, was lim- 
ited to a certain number of days, at the expi- 
ration of which the bearer could not claim any 
rights based upon it; but he could be seized 



* That which gives a safe passage; either a convoy or 
guard to protect a person in an enemy's country or in a for- 
eign country, or a writing, a pass or warrant of security giv- 
en to a person to enable him to travel with safety. — Webster. 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 1 7 

and punished like any other alleged male- 
factor. 

Charles, instigated by some powerful ene- 
mies of Luther, issued an edict on May 26, 
1 52 1, authorizing any one to seize and deliver 
him up after the lapse of the time, granted by 
the passport. A few sentences will give an 
idea of this edict : 

"We have therefore dismissed from our 
presence this Luther, whom all pious and 
sensible men deem a madman or one pos- 
sessed of the devil ; and we enjoin that on 
the expiration of his safe-conduct immediate 
recourse be had to effectual measures to check 
his furious rage. 

" For this reason, under pain of incurring 
the penalty due to the crime of high treason, 
we forbid you to harbor the said Luther after 
the appointed term shall expire, to conceal 
him, to give him food or drink, or to furnish 
him, by word or by deed, publicly or secretly, 
with any kind of succor whatever. We enjoin 
you, moreover, to seize this devil Martin Lu- 
ther clothed in human form and in the garb 
of a monk, or cause him to be seized, wher- 
ever you may find him, to bring him before 
2* B 



1 8 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

us without any delay, or to keep him in safe 
custody until you have learned from us in 
what manner you are to act toward him, and 
have received the reward due to your labor,s 
in so holy a work. 

"As for his adherents, you will apprehend 
them, confine them and confiscate their prop- 
erty. 

"As for his writings, if the best nutriment 
becomes the detestation of all men as soon 
as one drop of poison is mingled with it, how 
much more ought such books, which contain 
a deadly poison for the soul, to be not only 
rejected, but destroyed ? You will therefore 
burn them or utterly destroy them in any 
other manner." 

This imperial mandate sounded more like 
a papal bull than an act of the empire. In it 
Luther is execrated as an incorrigible heretic 
accursed of God and the pope. All his sins 
are painted in the blackest colors ; the con- 
tents of his books are set forth as genuine 
doctrines of devils. They are represented as 
inciting war and sedition, robbery and mur- 
der; as dissolving all the bonds of the State 
and of the Church and annihilating the entire 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 1 9 

Christian system. The unheard-of insolence, 
as it was called, with which he rages against 
all the decrees of the pope and of councils, 
the holy sacraments, sacerdotal discipline and 
church order, are depicted in the most offen- 
sive language. He is represented as denying 
all legal and moral obligation, leading a law- 
less life and indulging in unbridled licentious- 
ness. We need not be surprised at this edict 
when we know that it was written by the pa- 
pal legate Aleander, one of Luther's most 
furious enemies. 

One interesting fact in the history of this 
edict must not be overlooked. It was not 
promulgated until the 26th of May, at which 
time the Diet had been dissolved and most of 
the members had left Worms ; but, to give it 
the appearance of an act of the Diet, it was 
purposely dated May 8 and had not received 
the sanction of many members. The few 
men who adopted it did not meet in the hall 
of the imperial assembly, but the emperor 
convened them in his own private apartments, 
where the act was consummated ; and, to 
make it appear to have been unanimously 
adopted, a spurious date was attached to it. 



20 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

Such was the proclamation issued by the 
emperor, and all men were commanded to 
observe it. It placed Luther and his friends 
in a fearful predicament. There were thou- 
sands who were ready to execute it, for they 
thirsted for his blood and would have made 
a merit of putting him to death. But the 
Lord preserved him from the machinations 
of the wicked, for Luther had not yet accom- 
plished the work for which he was raised up. 
All the adherents of Rome burst into a shout 
of triumph. The victory was achieved. The 
outlawed monk could easily be apprehended, 
and dealt with accordingly. Others, more 
farseeing, entertained different views. " In 
my opinion," said Alphonso Valdez, a Span- 
iard at the court of Charles, " it is not the end, 
but the beginning; for I find that the minds 
of the Germans are much excited against the 
papal chair." He was right. The cause had 
taken such deep root in the Church and in 
the people that, even should Luther be put to 
death, the Reformation would not perish with 
him. Everybody was aware of the danger to 
which he was exposed, but still some discrim- 
inating men believed that the revolution had 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 21 

taken too firm a hold upon the hearts of thou- 
sands to be put back, even though the leader 
of it should be put out of the way. Some 
of the most influential states of the em- 
pire had openly expressed their disapproba- 
tion of the abominable oppressions of the 
pope and his allies. They spoke with rever- 
ence of the heroic Luther, and had themselves 
abolished some of the abuses of the Church. 
In many towns the people had espoused the 
new doctrine, and no one dared to publish the 
edict of Worms, " for fear of the people." At 
many places the Lutheran party was so strong 
that the Romanists were compelled to keep 
quiet. Even in Worms, Luther's writings 
were sold in the streets before the emperor 
had left the city. 

In the condition of things then existing, it 
could be foreseen that the edict would not 
produce important results. Some of fclae states 
did not conceal their admiration of Luther's 
bearing at the Diet; to others this religious 
controversy was a matter of too much indif- 
ference to allow the edict to be seriously car- 
ried into effect in their territories. Besides 
these, for a long time the majority of the states 



22 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

had established it as a principle to employ 
every method to weaken the influence of the 
papal assumptions relating to German affairs. 
The emperor himself was at that time involved , 
in a war with Francis I. of France, and he had 
neither time nor power to execute the wishes 
of the Roman court. It was only in the states 
of Duke George of Saxony and of the elector 
of Brandenburg in which any unfavorable re- 
sults for the Lutheran party were to be appre- 
hended. 

Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, the 
sovereign of Luther, was highly delighted 
with his courageous conduct at the Diet; but 
he knew well enough that he would incur the 
odium and opposition of the emperor and his 
party if he openly resisted the edict and in 
defiance of it protected the outlawed Reform- 
er. He conceived a plan by which he could 
shield him from the wrath of his enemies and 
grant him rest for a season from his exhaust- 
ing labors. 

If he could secrete him for a while from pub- 
lic observation and let the report go forth that 
Luther was murdered, the excitement would 
subside and the general apprehension be quiet- 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 23 

ed. It is said by some that even the emperor 
himself was privy to this scheme, but the report 
is not authentic. Frederick had Luther ap- 
prehended on his return from the Diet, and 
he was secretly conveyed to Wartburg Castle. 
The elector was much too conscientious to 
expose himself to the dilemma of knowing 
where Luther was concealed and thus appear- 
ing to maintain a stand of opposition to his 
sovereign, and hence he left the execution of 
the design to his court-preacher and private 
secretary, Spalatin. He selected the Wart- 
burg as the most desirable asylum, and em- 
ployed the bold and stalwart castellan Hans 
von Berlepsch to carry out the plan in its de- 
tails. The latter took into his confidence a 
nobleman of the vicinity, Burkard von Hund, 
and also employed other subordinates. It 
was only the day before Luther left Worms 
that Spalatin succeeded in gaining his con- 
sent to the capture, but without informing 
him where it was to occur or to what place 
he was to be conducted. Perhaps they were 
afraid that his candor or want of caution or 
abhorrence of all duplicity might lead him to 
betray the secret. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CAPTURE. 

IT was Friday, April 26, 152 1, when Luther 
left Worms on his return home. After he 
had given his farewell benediction to his friends, 
many of whom had visited him on the eve of 
his departure, and having partaken of a fru- 
gal meal, he left the place at 10 A. m., accom- 
panied by some who had determined to go 
with him all the way to Wittenberg, and by 
others who could proceed only a short dis- 
tance. Casper Sturm, the imperial herald, in 
his official costume, followed him after a few 
hours, and overtook him at Oppenheim and 
acted as his protector under direct orders of 
the emperor. Charles was too well aware of 
the opinion of the princes and of the states,' as 
well as of the people, and, besides, he was 
too conscientious himself, to allow Luther to 
be exposed to the violence of his enemies. 

24 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 2$ 

Instead of yielding to the murderous importu- 
nity of those who urged him not to observe 
the rights of the safe-conduct to the heretic, 
but to treat him as Huss was treated at Con- 
stance one hundred years before, he despatch- 
ed one of his own trusty henchmen to guard 
him against violence. 

It must be recorded to the credit of the 
emperor that to some princes at Worms who 
advised him to execute Luther he replied : 
" No. As Luther came here under the impe- 
rial protection and safe -conduct, we will not 
consent that any harm shall befall him ; for 
if fidelity to one's promises were driven out 
of all the world besides, it should still be 
found in an emperor." 

In the same vehicle which the magistracy 
of Wittenberg had furnished to convey Lu- 
ther to Worms, and in which he now entered 
on his homeward journey, there were seated 
with him, when they started, his friends Nico- 
las von Amsdorf, Justus Jonas, Jerome Schurf 
— who was his legal adviser at the Diet — John 
Suaven — a Pomeranian nobleman who was a 
student at Wittenberg — and John Petzenstein- 
er, a brother of some order, who, according to 

3 



26 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

its rules, was obliged to accompany him to 
Worms. Luther's own brother Jacob joined 
him subsequently. 

On April 28 they arrived at Frankfort, 
where he received many tokens of regard 
from his friends and patrons. From this 
place he wrote a letter to his friend Lucas 
Kranach in Wittenberg, informing him of 
the proceedings at Worms, in which he says : 
" Nothing more was done than, ' Did you 
write these books ?' — ' Yes.' — ' Will you re- 
cant them ?' — ' No !' — ' Then begone.' O we 
blind Germans ! how like children we act, 
and so miserably allow ourselves to be fool- 
ed by the Romanists!" 

He had been informed of his intended cap- 
ture, and submitted to it with hesitation ; but 
he remembered how the servant of the Lord, 
Obadiah, the chamberlain of King Ahab, took 
a hundred prophets and hid them by fifty in 
a cave, and fed them with bread and water to 
protect them against the vengeance of the 
ungodly queen Jezebel (1 Kings xviii. 4), 
and how the disciples took Paul by night and 
let him down by the wall in a basket (Acts 
ix. 25), and how the wise men were warned 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 2J 

of God in a dream to avoid the snares laid 
for them by Herod (Matt. ii. 12). In the 
letter to Kranach he takes leave of him and 
alludes to his contemplated apprehension, and 
continues : " I bless you and commend you to 
God. I will consent to be concealed, but I 
do not know where it is to be ; and, although 
I would rather have suffered death from ty- 
rants, especially from the infuriate Duke 
George, yet I must not disregard the coun- 
sel of good men. For a brief season we must 
keep silent and suffer. ' For a little while ye 
shall not see me, but in a little while ye shall 
see me.' Thus speaks Christ (John xvi. 15). 
I hope that may be your experience ; but 
God's will be done in this, as in all other 
things, on earth as it is in heaven." 

The imperial edict against Luther was not 
yet publicly proclaimed, but the report of his 
heroic conduct at Worms had spread abroad 
as if by a winged messenger. His journey 
homeward was like a triumphal procession, 
for many who were certain that he would 
fall a sacrifice to priestly tyranny and hate 
now hailed him and his friends with rap- 
ture. 



28 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

On the same day they arrived at Friedheim. 
Here they rested for a short period, during 
which Luther wrote a long Latin letter to the 
emperor, and another of similar import, in 
German, to those electors, princes and states 
of the Holy Roman Empire who were assem- 
bled in Worms. In both he vindicated his 
conduct at the Diet in moderate and dignified 
language, and promised, although he could 
not succeed in having his writings examined 
by competent judges in Worms, that he would 
appear before such judges anywhere and re- 
cant if his facts and arguments were refuted 
by the Holy Scriptures. For the security 
of the safe-conduct he again expressed his 
thanks ; he had expressed his gratitude per- 
sonally to the emperor before he had left 
Worms. On the following day he despatch- 
ed both letters by the hands of the imperial 
herald to Spalatin, who was still at that place, 
to be by him delivered to the parties address- 
ed. The herald was thus dismissed, and this, 
was an important step, for he might be in the 
way of carrying out the design ; and, besides, 
his presence was no longer necessary, for they 
were now approaching the dominions of the 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 29 

landgrave Philip of Hessia, who had given 
Luther a safe-conduct through his territory. 

It is probable that he wrote these letters at 
the instigation of the elector, for in an enclos- 
ed note to Spalatin he says : " Here you have 
the letters which you desired." 

From Friedheim the journey was contin- 
ued through the territory of the landgrave 
of Hessia, passing by Griinberg, Hersfeld and 
Berka, until, on the evening of May I, they 
reached Eisenach, near which they were met 
by a crowd of citizens, who escorted them into 
the town. 

At Hersfeld, Luther was received with great 
respect by the abbot Krato Meilius. " The 
abbot," says he, " sent his chancellor and 
chamberlain a whole mile to meet me, and 
he himself received me with numerous horse- 
men at his castle and conducted me into the 
village. At the gate the magistrates awaited 
me ; in the monastery I was sumptuously en- 
tertained, and had a most comfortable cham- 
ber and a soft bed. They compelled me to 
preach next morning at five o'clock, although 
I resisted this appeal, for I was afraid it might 
be the occasion of detriment to the abbot, and 
3* 



30 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

they would also say that I had broken my 
promise, as they had forbidden me to preach 
during my journey. Yet T did not keep si- 
lence, and did not consent that the word of 
the Lord should be bound. The next day 
the abbot furnished me with, an escort as far 
as the forest, and ordered his chancellor to 
provide another meal for us all at Berka. I 
also preached at Eisenach. True, the pastor 
of the church protested against it through a 
notary and witnesses, but afterward apologized 
by saying that he did it only from necessity 
and fear of his superiors." 

Thus Luther reports his tour to Spalatin. 
In another letter from Eisenach to Count Al- 
bert of Mansfeld he says: " They enjoined it 
upon me not to preach or write during my 
journey. I said, ' I will do everything that is 
agreeable to His Imperial Majesty, and yet I 
will leave God's word unbound.' Thus I de- 
parted, and am now in Eisenach. Mark well, 
they will accuse me of having forfeited my 
safe-conduct, for I have preached at Hersfeld 
and Eisenach, and they interpret the prohib- 
itory language very strictly." 

At Eisenach he was received by a crowd 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 3 I 

of the citizens, as at Hersfeld ; and, whilst he 
was calmly sleeping in " his own dear city," 
there was on the same night a tumultuous 
uproar of his youthful admirers, principally 
students, in Erfurt, occasioned by a fierce at- 
tack of the deacon of one of the churches, 
from the steps of the high altar, upon Dr. 
Johann Drach, a professor in the univer- 
sity, who was an adherent of the new doc- 
trine. 

At Eisenach his travelling associates, ex- 
cepting Amsdorf, separated from him. Most 
probably he was here joined by his brother 
Jacob, who accompanied him, on May 3, to 
Mora — " the Nazareth of Germany " — the for- 
mer residence of his parents, where his grand- 
mother and his uncle Heinz Luther, and many 
other relatives, still lived. 

He here preached under a linden tree, for 
the chapel was much too small to contain the 
crowd that streamed from all quarters to hear 
their distinguished relative ; so that he could 
justly write : " I travelled through the forest 
to see my relatives, who are so numerous that 
they occupy nearly the whole neighborhood." 
This linden is said to have stood before the 



32 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

original Luther house as late as fifty years ago, 
and was reckoned to be five hundred or six 
hundred years old. 

Luther was at this time thirty-eight years 
old. He was of medium size, robustly built, 
but so reduced by cares and hard study that 
when he was approached near, all his bones 
could be counted. In his countenance, which 
also gave evidence of night-vigils and men- 
tal conflicts, there glowed two fiery eyes 
whose piercing glance it was hard to en- 
dure. At this time he still wore the cowl 
of the monk. 

The next day he pursued his journey with 
his two companions to Waltershausen. The 
way leads near to the castle of Altenstein and 
passes through the Thuringian Forest. Near 
the castle, in a narrow defile, the vehicle was 
suddenly stopped by five masked and armed 
horsemen. One of them attacked the pos- 
tilion and hurled him to the earth ; another 
seized Amsdorf and held him firmly. He 
begged for mercy, but Luther, understanding 
the whole affair, pacified his alarmed fellow- 
travellers by saying, " Confide, amici nostril" 
(" Be of good courage ; they are our friends.") 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 33 

The other three horsemen with feigned vi- 
olence dragged Luther from the carriage, 
threw a military cloak over him and ordered 
him to mount a horse, before provided. 

According to another account, when Luther 
was violently dragged out of the wagon he 
uttered the words, " Hell, hast thou conquer- 
ed ?" This exclamation might be interpreted 
as though he assumed he was apprehended 
by enemies in a region where the doctrines 
of Rome were still tenaciously held, and that 
he was not aware of what was to occur ; but 
it can be easily reconciled to his consoling 
words to Amsdorf, inasmuch as he knew the 
diabolical plans with which he was persecuted, 
and which rendered his concealment from the 
world necessary. Without these wicked and 
malicious spirits his concealment would not 
have been necessary ; and he may have meant 
this when he made the exclamation. 

Luther's brother, Jacob, fled in alarm and 
concealed himself in the forest. The two who 
had Amsdorf and the coachman in custody 
now left them alone. All five leaped to their 
saddles and hurried away in a rapid gallop 
with their prisoner. The brother of the order 
c 



34 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

had fled, without so much as a parting sal- 
utation, to Waltershausen.* 

The coachman, alarmed to the highest de- 
gree, soon recovered sufficient consciousness 
to resume his place, and, taking Amsdorf into 
the wagon, drove at a rapid speed to Witten- 
berg. All along the road, in every village 
and to every one they met, they reported the 
violent abduction of Luther, and the alarming 
news soon spread over all the country around. 
The people were astonished and indignant, 
and the exclamation was everywhere heard, 
" Luther has fallen into the hands of his 
enemies." 

The captors of Luther in the mean time 
proceeded in the direction of Wartburg, where 
they arrived at eleven o'clock at night. The 
whole transaction was performed, under the 
direction of the elector Frederick, by the cas- 
tellan of Wartburg, Hans von Berlepsch, and 
his friend Burkhard Hund von Wenkheim. 

A short distance from Steinbach there still 
exists Luther's Spring, so called from the 

* The accounts differ. Some have it that this was Luther's 
own brother Jacob, and others that the Augustinian brother 
was still one of the company. 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 35 

fact that he requested permission of his cap- 
tors to dismount and drink of the clear-moun- 
tain-stream. Near the spring there formerly 
stood an ancient stately beech called the Lu- 
ther Beech by the people in the vicinity. On 
March 1 8, 1841, it was overthrown by a vio- 
lent storm, and only a stump of the old trunk 
remained, from which a living branch is still 
growing. The wood of the demolished tree 
was presented by the count Von Meiningen 
to the church at Steinbach, and a profitable 
trade is carried on from it. Larger and 
smaller fragments of it, with the authorized 
church-stamp attesting its authenticity, are 
sold to carvers and turners, who make vari- 
ous articles of it for collectors of relics. 
There is a billet of this tree also preserved 
in the Luther Room in Wartburg Castle. 
Near the remains of the tree which still stand 
the count Von Meiningen, in the year 1858, 
erected a square sandstone monument in the 
form of a Gothic tower with the inscription 
in front : " Here Dr. Martin Luther, on May 
4, 1 52 1, by order of Frederick the Wise, 
elector of Saxony, was seized and conveyed 
to the castle of Wartburg. 'He shall drink 



36 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

of the brook in the way : therefore shall he 
lift up the head' (Ps. ex. 7)," On the rear 
side : " Erected by Bernhard Erich Freund, 
count of Sachsen Meiningen, in the year 
1858." On the right side : " ' He that walketh 
righteously and speaketh uprightly, he shall 
dwell on high : his place of defence shall be 
the munitions of rocks' (Isa. xxxiii. 15, 16)." 
And on the left : " ' The Lord is my rock, and 
my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my 
strength, in whom I will trust' (Ps. xviii. 2)." 
A very significant monument indeed ! As the 
place where he was seized cannot be distinctly 
determined at the present day, yet it seemed 
natural and correspondent with the design to 
erect the monument at the Luther Spring, the 
name of which, as is thought, undoubtedly 
must sustain a casual connection with the 
abduction of the Reformer. Much has been 
written to demonstrate the authenticity of this 
place, but it would require too much space to 
present the argument, nor would it be of any 
special interest to the general reader. 

But we will leave the Luther Spring and 
follow the captive a few miles farther. Al- 
though aware that he would be rescued by 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 37 

his friends, yet he did not know whither 
they would conduct him. Weary from the 
long; and rapid riding on horseback, the hos- 
pitable gate of the Wartburg was thrown 
wide open to the cavalcade at eleven o'clock 
at night. 

Comfortable quarters were immediately as- 
signed to the captive, and all necessary atten- 
tion was paid to him. Several pages were 
constantly within call, and he fared more 
sumptuously than ever before. Frequently 
did he implore his generous guardian, the 
castellan Von Berlepsch, not to give himself 
so much solicitude about his comfort; but 
that officer had received orders which he 
was bound to obey, and, besides, he felt him- 
self honored in having such a distinguished 
prisoner under his care. Everything was 
done to prevent a betrayal of his presence, 
and hence he assumed the name of " Squire 
George " and adapted his external appearance 
to the character and social position of the 
name he had taken. 

" I have laid aside my monk's habit and 
have donned the vesture of a knight. I 
have allowed my hair and beard to grow, so 
4 



38 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

that you would hardly* recognize me; indeed, 
I am so changed that I scarcely know myself." 
Thus he writes to Spalatin, and in a letter to 
Melanchthon, on May 26, he writes : " I have 
nothing more to say, for I am a hermit, an- 
chorite and real monk, yet not according to 
tonsure or vestment. You would take me 
for a knight and hardly know me." Besides 
allowing his beard, moustache and hair to 
grow long, he wore a red cap, a military 
cloak, and occasionally the sword of a 
knight, as well as huge boots and spurs.* 
During the early period of his concealment 

* Luther was painted by Lucas Kranach in this unusual 
garb. A poet of that day thus writes below a wood- cut of 
the picture : 

" Zu Wartburg Doctor Luther war 
Verborgen fast ein ganzes Jahr, 
Ein grosser Bart ihm war gewachsen, 
Wie damals trugen auch die Sachsen, 
Und ganz verandert Sein Gestalt 
War neun und dreysig Jahr gleich alt, 
Gen Wittenberg geritten kam 
Zu Nicolas Amsdorff, da er nabm 
Die Herberg, eh er Seinen Bart 
Hat abgelegt, als bald er ward 
Von Lucas Kranach abgemalt 
Also wie er ist hie srestalt." 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 39 

no one saw him except a few persons connect- 
ed with the castle, and even later he had very 
little intercourse with other people. Even his 
correspondence with friends was guarded with 
vigilant anxiety. In a letter to Amsdorf of 
May 12 he says : " I have recently written to 
my friends in Wittenberg, but I have followed 
better advice and torn up my letters, for it is 
not yet safe to write ;" and in a later one, to 
Spalatin, he says : " I found some difficulty in 
having this despatched, for they are very ap-- 
prehensive that it might become known where 
I am. Hence, if you think it will be for the 
honor of Christ, let it continue doubtful, or 
make it so, whether friend or foe has me 
in custody, and keep silent yourself; for, be- 
sides you and Amsdorf, it is not necessary for 
anybody to know whether I am living or 
dead." On July 15 he complains that he 
" had heard from Amsdorf that a secretary 
of Duke John had written to a lady in Tor- 
gau that he was at Wartburg Castle. Hence 
the report was spread all around, and the 
people would be convinced, because it came 
from the court. Whether the writer really 
knew it or presumed it, it would now be in 



40 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

vain to keep the secret. Thus Satan entraps 
us and betrays our cause." 

In all his letters he omits the mention of 
the place of his sojourn. He dates " From 
my Desert," " From my Hermitage," " On the 
Hill," " In the Airy River," " In the Region 
of the Birds, which cheerfully sing in the trees 
and praise God day and night with all their 
strength."* But the majority of his letters are 
dated " From my Hermitage," " From my Pat- 
mos." The latter name he afterward used 
more frequently than any other. On one occa- 
sion he employed a little trickery to deceive 
his enemies as to the place of his concealment. 
In a letter to Spalatin he encloses another 
which was dated somewhere else, and which 
Spalatin was purposely to lose, so that it 

* The dates " In the Region of the Birds " and "Among 
the Birds" are found only in some letters written in May. 
He who has stood on the Wartburg on some clear morning 
or calm evening of May and listened to the sweet warbling 
of the finches and nightingales, which to this day " praise 
God day and night " in that delightful region, will recog- 
nize in those dates something more than the bare design of 
keeping the secret of his residence, and will sympathize 
with the tender and refined emotions which swelled the 
heart of Luther. 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 4 1 

might fall into the hands of his enemies. He 
was desirous that it should it come under the 
eye of Duke George in Dresden, who would 
eagerly betray and report the pretended se- 
cret. 

Luther's sudden disappearance naturally cre- 
ated extraordinary anxiety and alarm. Many 
of his adherents feared that by the artful strat- 
agem of his opponents he had been violently 
put out of the way ; others hoped and wished 
that he had been somewhere concealed by his 
friends. Thus, in Eisenach, where numerous 
stones were in circulation, it was reported and 
believed that he had been seized and con- 
veyed out of Franconia, not even dreaming 
that at the same time he was comfortably 
quartered within a few miles of their own 
city. One report was, that one of the counts 
Von Henneberg had captured him, but the 
count publicly made an indignant denial. None 
but Amsdorf and Spalatin knew where he 
was concealed. The former -learned it from 
Luther himself, who received permission from 
his custodian after a few weeks to write to 
him. The first letters which Luther wrote 
to some friends in Wittenberg were torn to 
4* 



42 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

pieces at the command of Von Berlepsch, who 
deemed it yet too early to hold any intercourse 
with the outer world. Melanchthon also must 
have known at least that Luther had not been 
murdered, for he communicated the glad in- 
telligence to their common friend Wenzel 
Link, in Nurnberg : " Our dearest father is 
still alive." 

On the other hand, his enemies and perse- 
cutors soon became painfully anxious lest the 
excitement of the people should grow greater 
and trouble ensue; hence they wished him 
back again. Luther heard of this apprehen- 
sion of his enemies, and hence he writes to 
Spalatin in May or June : " The priests and 
monks, who, whilst I was yet free, raved about 
me and became almost insane in their persecu- 
tion, are now so alarmed about my abduction 
that they begin to palliate their folly and want 
it to be forgotten. They cannot endure the 
popular feeling in my favor, and know not 
how to get out of the difficulty. ... Is not 
the language of Moses true? — 'The Lord shall 
fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace ' 
(Ex. xiv. 14). A papist has written to the arch- 
bishop of Mayence, 'We have lost Luther, just 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 43 

as we desired, but the people are everywhere 
so excited that we are not sure of our lives if 
we do not hunt for hirn everywhere with lamps 
and bring him back again.' " He was joking, 
it is true, but how would it be if real earnest 
would follow his joke ? Pretending prophets 
and soothsayers were summoned to divine the 
place of concealment, but Providence guarded 
Luther against all intrusion, and drew for a 
while a veil around this servant of God which 
no human eye could penetrate. 

Luther, with his vivacious and manly spirit, 
accustomed to a bustling, stirring, vigorous 
activity, and overflowing with heartfelt sym- 
pathy in the fate of his friends in Wittenberg, 
felt himself very much cramped and out of 
place in his solitude and isolation. He had 
too many general interests confided to him to 
feel comfortable, shut out of all fellowship with 
the world. The feeling of relief from the 
threatening danger and his deliverance from 
the machinations of his enemies never entered 
his mind. He was willing at any moment to 
die a martyr to the cause, but the sudden se- 
clusion from society, and the inability to take 
any public part in the affairs of the Church to 



44 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

which he saw himself condemned, were ex- 
tremely distasteful to him, and this occasioned 
the deepest dejection. He writes to Spalatin : 
" I am unspeakably cast down, and my con- 
science torments me that, yielding to your 
advice and that of other friends, I suppressed 
my spirit in Worms and did not act the part 
of Elisha to those idols. They shall hear 
something quite different, if I should ever 
encounter them again." He often regretted 
the humility and reverential respect which 
restrained him from declaring his confession 
before the tyrants in a more fearless manner. 
He soon began to long for greater freedom 
of spirit ; he felt a painfully ardent desire for 
a higher and fresher activity in all that con- 
cerns the interests of humanity; and this in- 
voluntary confinement often filled him with 
sadness. " I am a wonderful prisoner, who 
sits here partly with my will and partly 
against my will — with my consent, because 
it is the Lord's will ; against my consent, be- 
cause I wish publicly to stand up for the word, 
but am not yet worthy of it." Thus he ex- 
pressed himself on May 12 to John Agricola, 
and some days later to Melanchthon, to whom 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 45 

he sent a report of his literary labor: " I do 
not want you to be anxious about me. As far 
as my person is concerned, I am quite well ; 
only that my mind is still disturbed and that 
the former weakness of spirit and of faith con- 
tinues. My seclusion is of no account what- 
ever; but for the honor of the divine word 
and for the strengthening of others as well as 
of myself, I would rather burn on glowing- 
coals than rot, half living and yet not dead, in 
solitude." 

At another time he writes : " Do you not 
pray that my flight, to which I unwillingly 
yielded, may turn out to the greater glory of 
God ? I am very anxious to hear what you 
think of it. I fear that it may appear as 
though I retreated from the battle-field ; but 
there was no evasion, and I could not resist 
the advice of friends. I would wish nothing 
better than this moment to expose myself to 
the most furious rage of my enemies." 

As has been observed, Luther was well pro- 
vided for on the Wartburg, and he was most 
kindly treated, as he often says in his letters. 
His relations to the castellan Von Berlepsch, 
notwithstanding their different social positions, 



46 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

were of the most pleasant character. The ma- 
jority of the officials at that time were knights 
of high rank, but the generous heart of the 
chief bowed irresistibly to the brilliant genius 
of his distinguished captive, " whose eagle 
eye," as Erasmus designated it, encountered 
his own proud look, and whose enchanting 
discourse, conveyed in deep sonorous tones, 
won his custodian's admiration, and whose 
discriminating judgment and sparkling wit 
seasoned their mutual intercourse. 

Besides the two pages of noble birth who 
waited upon Luther, the personnel of the cas- 
tle consisted of two equerries, a secretary, the 
chaplain, a steward, a cook, a gatekeeper, two 
watchmen, a muleteer and a schoolmaster, who 
also officiated as vicar at an altar in the chapel. 

But it occasioned silent uneasiness and sad- 
dened his delicate sensibility that he was en- 
tirely unaware at whose expense he was so 
generously supported in his exile. " Be not 
concerned that I may not be able to endure 
my banishment," he writes to Spalatin, Au- 
gust 15, " for it is nothing to me where I live, 
if I only do not become a burden to these 
people here. But I believe that I am living 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. Atf 

here at the expense of our prince; otherwise I 
would not remain here an hour if I knew that 
I am consuming the provision of this man " 
(meaning the castellan), " although he cheer- 
fully furnishes me everything I want. You 
would do me a favor by giving me certain 
information on this point ; for I can conclude 
nothing from the noble sentiment of this man 
except that he supports me at the expense of 
the elector. But I am so inclined that I fear 
being burdensome where it is not really the 
case, and this anxiety is not inconsistent with 
a proper dignity." 

Luther's despondency and the oppressive 
feeling of solitude were much aggravated by 
bodily indisposition. He was attacked by 
sickness soon after his arrival at the Wart- 
burg. The want of exercise had disturbed 
his digestion and occasioned severe attacks 
of colic. This evil, from which he had al- 
ready suffered at Worms, was not abated, but 
rather increased from day to day, and annoyed 
him through the whole summer. It was only 
toward autumn that he was relieved and re- 
stored to health. 

He often complained to his friends of his 



48 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

sufferings and severe pains. Let us his hear 
his own words : " I have not slept the whole 
night, and have no rest yet. If this evil con- 
tinues as it has begun, it will become intoler- 
able." He thus writes to Melanchthon in his 
first letter, May 12, and on June io to Spala- 
tin : " My trouble from which I suffered in 
Worms has not yet left me, but has become 
worse. I suffer so severely that I doubt of 
help or cure. Thus the Lord chastens me, so 
that I am not without the cross. His name 
be praised! Amen." Again, on July 13, to 
Melanchthon : " It is now eight days that I 
neither write nor pray nor study, because I 
am terribly visited with temptations of the 
flesh and other grievous evils. If things do 
not improve, I 'shall publicly go to Erfurt, 
where you will see me or I see you, for I wish 
to consult a physician and a surgeon. I cannot 
endure it any longer; I would rather suffer 
ten great wounds than this calamity. Per- 
haps God is laying this severe infliction upon 
me, that He may tear me out of this wilder- 
ness to mingle with the people again." A 
few days later he expresses the same deter- 
mination to seek medical aid in Erfurt to 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 49 

Spalatin, who had sent him some remedies : 
" I have received everything safely, and have 
used the pills according to order. I feel some- 
what relieved, but still have pains. I am ap- 
prehending the worst again. If the evil does 
not abate, I will go to Erfurt and employ a 
physician." In the mean time, the plague 
broke out in Erfurt, and the seventy of his 
sickness had somewhat abated. " It was the 
occurrence of the plague," he writes to the 
same on July 31, "that prevents me from 
going to Erfurt. I feel somewhat better after 
taking much and strong medicine, but the 
condition of my digestive organs has not 
improved, and I judge that the affliction 
will grow worse, as the Lord is chastening 
me." It was only in the fall, as has been 
observed, that he could rejoice in the full res- 
toration of his health. " My salutation and 
thanks for what you have sent. My sick 
body has reconciled itself to me, so that I 
have no more need of medicine. I am per- 
fectly well as formerly. God be praised !" 
Thus he writes to Spalatin on October 7. 
To this diary of his bodily condition must 
yet be added a brief history of a hunting-ex- 
5 D 



5<D LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

pedition of which he wrote to Spalatin on 
August 15 : " Last week I was two days on 
the chase, and had a taste, for once, of the 
bitter-sweet enjoyments of these great gen- 
tlemen. We caught two hares and one pair 
of poor pheasants. Really a dignified em- 
ployment for idle people ! Here, among nets 
and dogs, I had my theological thoughts, 
and as much sport as the sight of such things 
made me, so also did the concealed mystery 
and picture fill me with sympathy and pairi. 
For what does this picture represent but the 
devil through his ungodly masters and dogs 
— namely, the bishops and theologians — chas- 
ing and capturing innocent little animals ? 
This picture of simple and believing souls 
was vividly represented to my sympathizing 
heart. Added to this was an effort to pre- 
serve the life of a little hare. I concealed it 
in my sleeve and withdrew myself a little dis- 
tance from, the company. In the mean time, 
the dogs had scented it,, and bit it in the right 
leg through my coat, and finally killed it. 
Thus the pope and Satan rage and destroy 
redeemed souls, without any regard to my 
care. I am sick and tired of this sort of 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 5 I 

chase, and look upon that as much more 
pleasant in which bears, wolves, wild hogs, 
foxes, and the like — which represent ungodly 
teachers — are killed by spears and arrows. 
This I intend as my spiritual pleasantry with 
you, so that you consumers of game at court 
may know that ye also will be game in Para- 
dise, which Christ, the best hunter, can scarce- 
ly capture and keep even with much trouble." 

We can safely assume that Luther was per- 
mitted to wander occasionally outside of the 
castle for the restoration of his health and the 
enjoyment of fresh mountain-air: the history 
of the chase just related is evidence of the 
fact. It is likely, also, that in the course of 
time further excursions in the vicinity were 
allowed him, accompanied by a faithful and 
intelligent guide. The secret journey to 
Wittenberg at the end of the year would 
confirm this presumption, and even be a 
proof of it. 

Luther is silent on this subject in all his 
letters from the Wartburg to his friends. It 
is only Mathesius who relates it, and, as it 
would appear, from Luther's own communi- 
cation : " As our Luther diligently continues 



52 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

his studies and writing in his solitude and 
becomes exhausted, some of his friends ad- 
vise him to take walks for exercise to improve 
his health and breathe fresh air. Hence they 
take him on the chase ; sometimes he goes 
to gather strawberries ; and, besides, they oc- 
casionally send with him an honest servant, 
a presumed knight or equerry, whose fidelity 
and knightly remonstrance he afterward high- 
ly lauds, because he warned him against tak- 
ing off his sword in places of entertainment 
and immediately inspecting the books, so 
that the people may not look upon him as 
a scholar. Thus Dr. Luther went to several 
monasteries quite unknown. At Martsul he 
went among his friends, but they did not know 
Squire George; for that was what the equerry 
called him. He was recognized by some at 
Reinhardsborn. When the attendant observ- 
ed that, he reminded his squire that he must 
not neglect the appointed business of the 
evening, and hastily left the place." 

In the days of his deep despondency, to 
which his bodily sufferings and isolation nat- 
urally contributed much, Luther thought that 
the Evil One was persecuting him in every 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 53 

possible way, and would leave him no rest 
because he so faithfully and conscientiously 
labored in the cause of God. He complains 
of such temptations and conflicts of spirit 
even after he had been restored to health. 
On November I, he thus writes to Spalatin : 
"There are many wicked and crafty devils 
about who will yet kill me. Pray that Christ 
may not abandon me ;" and in the same style 
he expresses himself on the same day to his 
friend Gerbell, a lawyer in Strasburg : " Be- 
lieve me that in this idle solitude I am assail- 
ed by thousands of devils. It is more diffi- 
cult to fight these wicked spirits than the in- 
carnate devils — that is, wicked men." 

It is said that in 1546 he related the follow- 
ing story to some friends in Eisleben : ''When, 
in 1 52 1, I departed from Worms, and was 
seized near Eisenach and conveyed to the 
Wartburg, and was located in my Patmos, I 
had a room remote from all others, and no- 
body was allowed to come to me except two 
noble youths who twice a day brought me 
food. They had bought for me a sack of 
hazelnuts, of which I occasionally ate, and 
had them locked up in a chest. When I 
5* 



54 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

went to bed at night I undressed in the room, 
put out the light, went into my sleeping-cham- 
ber, adjoining, and laid down. Then the nuts 
began to play all manner of pranks. One 
after the other rose and struck hard against 
the rafters and rattled round my bed, but I 
was not disturbed about it. After I had 
nearly fallen asleep, such a rumbling was 
heard on the stairs, as if a great number of 
barrels were rolling down; and though I 
knew that the stairs were barred by chains 
of iron, so that no one could come up, still 
the casks were rolling down. I rose to see 
what was the matter, and the stairs were clos- 
ed. Then I said, ' If it be thou, so be it ;' and, 
commending myself to the Lord Jesus, of 
whom it is written (Ps. viii. 7), 'Thou hast put 
all things under his feet,' I again went to bed. 
At this time the wife of Hans von Berlepsch 
came to Eisenach, and, having heard that I 
was at the castle, was very desirous of seeing 
me ; but that could not be. To accommodate 
her at the castle I gave up my chamber to 
her, and they provided another for me. Dur- 
ing the night there was such a rattling in the 
room that she thought there were a thousand 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 55 

devils in it. But the best way to drive him 
away is to call upon Christ and to despise the 
devil: that he cannot bear. We must say to 
him, ' If thou art Lord over Christ, let it be 
so !' Thus I said to him at Eisenach." 

Myconius, in his history of the Reforma- 
tion, writes: "In the year 1538, Dr. Martinus 
related to us the whole account " (of his so- 
journ on the Wartburg) " in the house of 
John Loben at Gotha ; so that Jonas, Pome- 
ranus and all who were present were astound- 
ed.- Many wonderful and interesting events 
occurred during his captivity, and among 
them was how the devil appeared twice to 
Luther at Wartburg in the form of a great 
dog that would tear him to pieces, but was 
overcome by the power of Christ." 

Legends of various temptations of the dev- 
il, who repeatedly annoyed him during his 
translation of the Bible, are universally known 
and deeply impressed on the popular mind. 
They culminate in the one which reports Lu- 
ther's hurling his inkstand at the devil, and 
which effectually drove him away. This le- 
gend is very vividly brought to the recollec- 
tion of every visitor to Luther's room, where 



56 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

the celebrated and frequently-freshened ink- 
spot, now deeply sunk in the wall, is still 
exhibited, and keeps alive among the popu- 
lace the famous old traditionary story. The 
oft-repeated but improbable story is that one 
day especially he fancied that he beheld Satan, 
filled with horror at his work, tormenting him 
and prowling about him like a lion ready to 
seize his prey. Luther, alarmed and incensed, 
snatched up his inkstand and flung it at the 
head of his enemy. The figure disappeared 
with a dismal howl, and the missile dashed in 
pieces against the wall. 

It is worthy of remark that no contempo- 
rary historian of Luther mentions this affair, 
and it may be that some romantic reader may 
not thank the honest historian for breaking 
up the old popular illusion.* 

All the biographies of Luther contain ac- 
counts of these legends, and Michelet devotes 
more than thirty pages to this subject. The 

* On once observing to the show-woman at the Wartburg 
that Luther's ink must have been particularly good, to have 
retained its deep black color for over three hundred years, 
she with charming simplicity replied, "Oh, sir, we freshen 
it up every now and then " / 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 57 

following remarks from D'Aubigne are ju- 
dicious : 

"Solitary and in ill-health, and saddened 
by the exertions of his enemies and the ex- 
travagances of some of his followers, seeing 
his life wear away in the gloom of that old 
castle, — he had occasionally to endure terrible 
struggles. In those times men inclined to 
carry into the visible world the conflicts that 
the soul sustains with its spiritual enemies. 

" Luther's lively imagination easily em- 
bodied the emotions of his heart, and the 
superstitions of the Middle Ages had still, 
and continued to have through his life, some 
hold upon his mind. 

" Satan was not, in Luther's view, an invis- 
ible, but real, being. He thought that he 
appeared to men as he appeared to Christ. 
Although the authenticity of many of the 
stories on this subject contained in The Table- 
Talk and elsewhere is more than doubtful, 
history must still record this failing in the 
Reformer. 

" Never was he more assailed by these 
gloomy, ghastly ideas than in the solitude 
of the Wartburg. In the days of his strength 



58 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

he had braved the devil in Worms, but now 
his powers were somewhat broken. He was 
thrown aside ; Satan was victorious in his 
turn ; and, in the anguish of his soul, Luther 
imagined he saw his giant form towering be- 
fore him, lifting his finger in threatening atti- 
tude, exulting with a bitter and hellish sneer 
and gnashing his teeth in fearful rage." 

The papal anathema and the imperial edict, 
which denounced him as a recognized heretic, 
gave him but little uneasiness in his asylum. 
He several times alludes to the " terrible 
edict" in his first letters to Melanchthon, 
Amsdorf and Spalatin, but he is convinced 
that it will injure the cause of his adversaries. 
He regarded the political conflicts in which 
the emperor was entangled after the Diet as 
divine judgments upon him for his conduct 
in this affair. " The unhappy young man 
will never be prosperous, and will have to 
atone for the ungodliness of others, because, 
in Worms, following the advice of his wicked 
counsellors, he scorned and rejected the truth 
which was distinctly set before him. His 
misfortune will also comprehend Germany t 
because it also consented to the counsels of 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 59 

the ungodly." Thus Luther expresses him- 
self almost sympathizingly for the emperor 
to Spalatin on July 15. 

But the best evidences and demonstrations 
of his unterrifled spirit, and of his unshaken 
confidence in the progress and final conquest 
of his righteous cause in spite of the ban and 
the edict, are the number of his writings, be- 
sides other labors, which he began and partly 
finished on the Wartburg. 

His own natural inclination to activity, as 
well as the exertions of his enemies to under- 
mine and overthrow the work of the Refor- 
mation already begun, did not allow Luther 
to rest or to' keep silence in his seclusion. 
The timidity and lack of courage of some of. 
his friends, also, or the untimely and intem- 
perate zeal of others, compelled him several 
times to seize the pen either to encourage 
or to console or to rebuke them. Just as the 
apostles in prison, so had he whilst in custody, 
to edify and comfort the Church of the Lord. 
The letters which he wrote, particularly to 
Melanchthon, Spalatin and Amsdorf, testify 
the lively interest which he felt in the affairs 
of the outer w r orld, especially in Wittenberg. 



6o LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

It would require more space than can here 
be spared to cite the various occasions of this 
correspondence and historically to illustrate 
the facts which drew from him these warm ex- 
pressions of anxiety and sympathy. Only the 
more important of the writings which he be- 
gan or finished on the Wartburg shall be no- 
ticed. Through them his voice rolled down 
from his mountain-retreat and reverberated 
through valley and plain, everywhere awaken- 
ing the most absorbing interest. 

Here, while the Roman See raged furious- 
ly at the audacious innovator's escape, he him- 
self looked down securely from the platform 
of his dungeon-keep, rinding in this quiet re- 
treat full leisure to resume his flute, to sing 
his German psalms, to translate his Bible, 
and to thunder forth against the pope and 
the devil.* 

After his arrival at that fortress, he imme- 
diately took the Bible in hand and studied it 
diligently in the Hebrew and Greek original 
text. After a few weeks had elapsed, several 
writings were ready for the press. The first 

* Michelet. 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 6 1 

was the exposition of Ps. lxviii., of which sev- 
eral verses were sung at public worship on 
Ascension Day and Whitsunday. Both these 
festivals he celebrated on the Wartburg, and 
devoted his leisure-time during this festival 
season to the illustration of this psalm, but 
without having any books or other helps be- 
sides the Bible at hand. It was finished on 
May 26, and, with a long and instructive let- 
ter, it was sent to Melanchthon at Wittenberg. 
On June 10 there followed to Spalatin, at the 
same time with his brief treatise On Confession, 
a commentary on the Magnificat, or Mary's 
song of praise (Luke i.), which had been 
commenced for Duke John Frederick before 
Luther set out for Worms, but was now fin- 
ished on the Wartburg. The treatise On Con- 
fession was dedicated to the knight Franz 
von Sickingen, who was Luther's enthusi- 
astic admirer. 

At the same time there was published, to- 
gether with the above, a translation of the 
one hundred and nineteenth psalm, with brief 
notes, and, as a continuation of the larger 
commentary of the Psalms in Latin, begun 
some time before, the exposition of the twen- 
6 



6 2 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

ty-second was already finished on June 10 
and sent to the printing-office in Wittenberg. 

To these biblical labors also belongs the 
exposition of the Gospel of the Ten Lepers, 
which Duke John, who had heard of Luther's 
sojourn from the castellan, was very desirous 
of having, because it was thought it contain- 
ed passages contradictory to his treatise On 
Confession. Luther executed this commission 
and sent the manuscript to Spalatin on Sep- 
tember 17, with the request to employ some 
correct copyist, for his own handwriting must 
be kept secret, and then to send it to the 
duke. He also wished Spalatin to return the 
original, for he had no second copy, and could 
not himself employ any one else to copy it 
in order not to be betrayed. 

The book was printed in the same year at 
Wittenberg, with a vigorous preface which 
showed the resoluteness of his spirit as dis- 
tinctly as it severely scourged the selfishness 
of the papists and their lame defence of au- 
ricular confession. " I, a poor brother" (thus 
begins the preface), " have again kindled a 
fresh fire. I have bitten a great hole in the 
pocket of the papists by having attacked their 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 63 

doctrine of confession. Where shall I now 
stand? and where will they find enough sul- 
phur, pitch, fire and wood to burn to ashes 
the poisonous heretic ? They must certainly 
smash in the church windows, for some holy 
fathers and spiritual gentlemen preach that 
they must have fresh air to proclaim the gos- 
pel — that is, to defame Luther and cry ' Mur- 
der!' against him. They exclaim nothing but 
1 Death ! death ! death to the heretic ! for he 
aims at overturning everything and destroy- 
ing the whole spiritual profession in all 
Christendom.' I hope, if I should be wor- 
thy of it, that they may succeed in putting 
me to death and fill up the measure of their 
fathers ; but it is not yet time ; my hour has 
not come ; before that I must still further pro- 
voke the brood of vipers and properly deserve 
death at their hands, that they may have rea- 
son to offer me up as a great sacrifice." " Con- 
fession," says Luther, " is neither based on 
Scripture nor was it observed in the times of 
the apostles : it is entirely a human invention. 
They accuse us of neglecting and condemn- 
ing it, because we do not wish to confess and 
do not want to speak or hear of it. To this 



64 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

we reply, We confess our faults : we are poor 
sinners." He then proceeds to argue the 
subject, and shows finally that the chief reason 
why the papal priests so strenuously maintain 
the practice, against all Scripture and apostolic 
usage, is the immense revenue which auricular 
confession brings to the Church. 

Thus thought and wrote Luther against this 
unscriptural doctrine and practice of Rome. 
He unceasingly contended for the purification 
of the Church from all human inventions, 
abuses and follies, like a genuine, resolute 
gospel-knight without fear and without re- 
proach. No threats could intimidate this 
gospel-hero. 

A translation and exposition of Ps. xxxvii., 
together with a consolatory epistle, he dedi- 
cated to his beloved congregation at Witten- 
berg on November I, designating it as "the 
poor little flock in Wittenberg," demonstrat- 
ing thereby his tender solicitude in behalf 
of the place, and of the church there gathered. 
He concludes the letter in these words : " By 
God's grace, I am as bold and resolute as I 
have ever been. I suffered for a while from 
sickness, but it has done no harm. ... Be of 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 65 

good courage and fear nobody. The grace of 
God be with you. Amen!" 

Besides these translations and explanations 
of various sections of the Bible, which were 
to serve for the instruction, consolation and 
elevation of Christian people, and at the same 
as preliminary to his translation of the Scrip- 
tures, he was also engaged in a learned theo- 
logical controversy with some of his oppo- 
nents. More than one sharp treatise was sent 
out into the world from the Wartburg. To that 
On Aztricular Confession, which has been men- 
tioned, there followed a reply to a book by La- 
tomus, a theologian of Lyons, who undertook 
to secure the condemnation of the Lutheran 
doctrine by the theological faculty of that city. 
Luther most unwillingly entered upon the 
refutation of Latomus, but he felt himself 
compelled to engage in it. It was hastily 
written within the 8th and 20th of June, but 
it grew into a very important scientific treat- 
ise. 

" You can scarcely believe how reluctantly 
I allowed myself to be torn away from my 
quiet and peaceful studies to which I have 
devoted myself here in my Patmos, and to 

6* E 



66 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

apply my precious time to the useless gabble 
of this square-headed sophist." Thus speaks 
Luther in a letter to Justus Jonas when he 
sent the refutation to him in June, and at the 
end of the same letter he adds : " There ! take 
the writing. How glad I am that it does not 
remain any longer with me !" 

A new attack by Emser, with whom Luther 
had for some time conducted a controversy 
upon the universal priesthood, was also re- 
futed from the Wartburg in a treatise entitled 
Contradiction of an Error committed by the 
most highly learned Mr. Hieronymns Emser, 
etc., in which he finishes off his opponent in 
a still sharper and clearer style than before. 
The theological faculty of Paris, the highest 
scientific and scholastic authority of the 
Church of the Middle Ages, had issued a 
decree of condemnation against Luther's doc- 
trine, and Melanchthon had undertaken the 
refutation of it. Of this Luther writes to him 
on July 13: "I have a notion of translating 
into German, with accompanying notes, your 
Apology against the asses at Paris, together 
with their nonsense." (By this he means their 
condemnation of his doctrine.) This was done. 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 6? 

The translation, with a sharp epilogue and 
biting notes, appeared in the same year, under 
the title Counter- Condemnation against the 
Theologians of Paris. In the epilogue, among 
other things, it is said : "Although my dear 
Philip has answered them in a masterly man- 
ner, he has treated them too mildly and 
scourged them too gently. It is plain that 
I must use a woodman's axe in splitting these 
coarse blocks, and slash them to pieces ; oth- 
erwise they will not feel it." 

Still more sharp and vehement was his at- 
tack upon Archbishop Albert of Mayence. 
He had re-established the traffic in indulgences 
in his capital ; he had also punished some 
priests who had married, and had kept a priest 
a long time in prison on this account, until he 
consented to abandon his wife. In addition, 
it was reported that he sold the privilege of 
keeping concubines to the priests for money, 
and by his own conduct in regard to his vow of 
chastity, he gave offence and caused public scan- 
dal. Against this tyranny and abomination Lu- 
ther wrote a treatise called Against the Idol in 
Halle, which was finished on November I. 

But previous to this, the archiepiscopal coun- 






68 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

sellor Capito had been in Wittenberg and 
made his appearance at the electoral court. 
By certain representations and promises he 
prevailed upon certain persons to have his 
master spared, and not to be attacked by any 
public writing. Luther's protector, the elec- 
tor, was also himself decidedly opposed to 
Luther engaging in controversy against one 
of the first princes of the empire, who could 
easily disturb and imperil the peace of the 
realm. Spalatin had informed Luther of this, 
and told him that the elector would not suffer 
anything to be written against the archbishop. 
To this Luther replied, November 1 1 : " My 
salutation. A more unpleasant letter than 
your last I have scarcely ever read. I not 
only delayed my reply, but I also resolved 
not to send any answer. In the first place, I 
cannot endure it that, as you say, the prince 
will not allow that anything shall be written 
against the Mayencer, and that the public 
peace will be disturbed. I would rather over- 
turn you and the prince himself, and all cre- 
ation besides. If I have resisted the arch- 
bishop's creator, the pope, why should I spare 
his creature ? You talk very prettily about 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 69 

avoiding - a disturbance of the public peace, 
and yet are willing that the eternal peace of 
God should be disturbed by him through his 
ungodly and outrageously immoral conduct. 
Not so, my Spalatin ; not so, my prince ; but 
for the sake of Christ's flock the most vig- 
orous opposition must be made to that em- 
inently dangerous wolf. To this end I here- 
by send you a writing which was already fin- 
ished when your letter came, which did not 
move me to alter a word in it ; but you may 
submit it to Melanchthon for inspection. 
Hand it to him, but do not advise against 
its publication, for I will assuredly not listen 
to any such counsel." 

But Spalatin, notwithstanding this explicit 
declaration, withheld the writing, and Luther 
subsequently gave ear to the representations 
of his friends and consented to the postpone- 
ment of its publication for a season. But, 
instead of that, on December I, he sent a pri- 
vate letter to the archbishop with the threat 
that if he did not immediately abolish the 
traffic in indulgences he would publish the 
affair to the whole world. He demands an ex- 
plicit answer within fourteen days, or he would 



JO LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

most certainly bring- out his book Against 
the Idol in Halle. He received the answer 
demanded ; which is a very distinct evidence 
what a power for the elector, the archbishop 
and cardinal of Mayence, the secluded monk 
on the Wartburg had already become. This 
answer was accompanied by a letter from 
Capito, in which he shields his master and 
intimates that the archbishop himself would 
employ measures for the promotion of the 
gospel, but in a manner different from that 
which the Wittenberger pursued. 

Luther was little edified by this epistle. 
His sincere and candid mind demanded up- 
rightness and honesty, truth and conscien- 
tiousness ; he could not, and would not, fully 
believe and trust either the archbishop or his 
counsellor. At the end of his letter to Capito 
he unreservedly says : " I did not wish to an- 
swer your cardinal, because I could not safely 
follow a middle course in not praising or cen- 
suring his dissimulation or his sincerity. But 
from you he will learn what Luther's spirit is ; 
and if I should learn that he acts uprightly 
and honestly, I will abase myself before him 
and fall at his feet." 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 7 1 

Amid these vexatious circumstances, it af- 
forded him unspeakable pleasure to hear that 
the Augustinians in Wittenberg had adopted 
his views and doctrine in their church arrange- 
ments, and had abolished private and auricular 
confession. As an expression of his pleasure 
he dedicated to them, for their encouragement 
and growth in the faith through unity, a little 
book entitled The Abuse of the Mass. It is 
worthy of observation that at the close of it 
he alludes to an ancient German legend relat- 
ing to the elector of Saxony, Frederick the 
Wise. Luther thus reports it : " When I was 
a child, I often heard a prophecy in this coun- 
try that the emperor Frederick would redeem 
the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem ; and it is the 
nature of prophecy to be fulfilled before it is 
understood, and it always has respect to some- 
thing different from that which the language 
indicates to the people. Hence it appears to 
me that this prophecy is fulfilled in our prince- 
ly duke Frederick of Saxony ; for what else 
can be understood by the holy sepulchre than 
the Holy Scriptures, in which the truth of 
Christ, killed by the papists, was lying buried, 
which the mendicant orders and inquisitors 



72 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

of heretics so carefully guarded that no dis- 
ciple of Christ could come and steal it? For 
concerning the grave in which our Lord lay, 
God cares about as much as he does about 
the cattle in Switzerland. Now, no one can 
deny that through Duke Frederick, the elector 
of Saxony, the living word of the gospel has 
come forth to you ; . . . and although he is 
now not an emperor, yet it is enough for the 
fulfilment of the prophecy that at Frankfort 
he was unanimously chosen by the electors as 
emperor, and would have been emperor if he 
had desired it. It is of no account to God 
how long a man is emperor if he only has 
been elected." 

November 21 is the date of a preface and 
dedication to his dear father, Hans Luther, 
of a little book entitled M. Luthe/s Judgment 
concerning Monastic Vows. It was written in 
Latin and translated into German by Justus 
Jonas, and was brought out, as Luther writes 
to Spalatin, for the purpose of rescuing young 
people from the hell and filth of celibacy. Its 
truthful thoroughness and impressive force 
created great sensation in and outside of the 
cloisters. 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 73 

Toward the end of November, Luther un- 
expectedly made his appearance in Witten- 
berg. We do not know to a certainty what 
was the occasion of this suddenly-conceived 
and hastily-executed tour. Naturally, it re- 
ceived the sanction of the castellan, but it 
was done entirely without the knowledge and 
will of his sovereign the elector. But, not to 
displease his princely patron and protector, 
Luther earnestly requests that his departure 
from the Wartburg, as .well as his return, 
should be kept secret. He remained in 
Amsdorfs house in Wittenberg for several 
days in seclusion, and saw no one but a few 
trusted friends. How happily these days of 
renewed association with his friends, after so 
long a separation, after such a painful solitude 
and numerous anxieties, must have passed in 
earnest conversation and fraternal intercourse ! 

Luther here learned for the first time that 
Spalatin held back some writings from the 
hands of those who had engaged to publish 
them, because he feared that they might do 
more harm than good. They were those On 
Monastic Vows, On the Mass and Against the 
Tyrant of Mayence. He wrote to Spalatin 



74 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

from Wittenberg, and rebuked him most se- 
verely : " I came to Wittenberg, and among 
my delightful enjoyments in the company of 
my friends I found but one drop of worm- 
wood, and that was that nobody had seen or 
heard of the books and letters. . . . My desire 
is that what I have written shall be published,' 
if not in Wittenberg, yet somewhere else. If 
the copies are lost, or if you have held them 
back, I shall be very much displeased, and 
shall hereafter write much more severely on 
these subjects. For he who may destroy 
dead paper cannot as easily quench the spirit 
of a man." However, we have already heard 
that Luther yielded to the prudent counsel 
of his friends, and finally consented to the 
judgment of those at the electoral court to 
do whatever they deemed best. 

After his return to the Wartburg, he imme- 
diately wrote a pamphlet called A Faithful 
Admonition- to all Christians to guard against 
Sedition and Revolt. This was probably oc- 
casioned by certain impressions and reports 
he had received and heard during this tour 
and in Wittenberg. It was sent to Spalatin 
early in December, with the wish that it 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 75 

might be printed and published as soon as 
possible. It is also likely that at this time he 
finished his translation and comments on the 
papal sacramental bull, or, as it is usually 
styled, Bulla Ccenae Domini, from its first 
words in the Latin copy. This decree, which 
contains terrible curses against all opponents, 
was annually renewed and proclaimed amid 
certain imposing formalities on Green Thurs- 
day. Luther himself found a place in it on 
the preceding Green Thursday, and he was 
fiercely denounced. He published a transla- 
tion of it, with notes, as a New Year's gift to 
the pope. He also added to it the tenth psalm, 
with notes, as a contrasted likeness of popery. 
The title of this remarkable treatise sufficiently 
characterizes its tone and contents : Bulla Cce- 
ucB Domini — that is, the Bull of the Evening 
Carousals of the most holy Lord the Pope, 
translated into German for a New Year s gift 
to the most holy Roman See. Ps. x. 7 ": His 
mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud : 
under his tongue is mischief and vanity. The 
exposition of Psalm x. concludes with these 
words : " I trust that as everybody will see 
that this psalm pictures popery, that the pope 



j6 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

does precisely as is therein described, and that 
no other government since the beginning of 
the world is like his, so will every one come 
to the conclusion that no other Antichrist may 
be expected. It is impossible that there should 
be a more corrupt system on earth, and that 
ruins more souls than that of the pope, saying 
nothing about his extortion of the worldly 
property of the people. Hence we must earn- 
estly pray to God against this head-knave of 
all the enemies of God, until God come and 
deliver us from him. Let every Christian say, 
Amen !" 

Amid these uninterrupted, diversified, and 
in part exciting, literary labors, there is one 
which Luther began soon after his going to 
Wartburg, and which was resumed after all 
his interruptions and annoyances and contin- 
ued to the middle of November with intense 
energy and delight. It was the preparation 
of his House Postils. It consists of an expo- 
sition of the Epistles and Gospels for Sundays 
and holy days, and it was the first collection 
of Protestant sermons in the German language, 
and, next to the translation of the New Testa- 
ment, is the most beautiful and ripest fruit of 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. jj 

his silent leisure and seclusion from the world. 
Luther himself subsequently designates it as 
the best book he ever wrote. " Even the pa- 
pists," says he, " like it." 

But his crowning- work on the Wartburg 
was unquestionably the translation of the 
New Testament. Of his determination to 
perform this work he speaks for the first time 
in a letter of December 18 to John Lange in 
Erfurt: " I will remain here in my seclusion 
until Easter. In the mean time, I will con- 
tinue the Postils, and intend also to translate 
the New Testament into German, which our 
friends urge upon me. I hear that you also 
are at work upon it ; continue as you have 
begun. Oh that every town had its interpre- 
ter, and that all tongues, hands, eyes, ears 
and hearts might be employed about this 
one book !" 

To Amsdorf he writes, January 13, 1522: 
" I am going to translate the Bible, although 
therein I have undertaken a work which ex- 
ceeds my strength. I know now what trans- 
lating means, and why it has not until now 
been undertaken by any one who has set his 
name to it. But the Old Testament I cannot 
7* 



75 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

touch unless you are present and help me. 
Indeed, if I could have a secret chamber at 
your house, I would come at once, and with 
your help undertake the whole of it, from the 
beginning ; and that would be a translation 
worthy of being read by all Christians, for I 
hope we would give to our Germany a better 
translation than the Latins have. It is a great 
work and worthy of the united exertions of 
us all, for it would promote the universal 
welfare of the whole Church." 

We see that Luther laid hold of his work 
with earnestness and zeal, but what untiring 
energy and perseverance, what passionate de- 
votedness and astounding industry, were ne- 
cessary to complete the smaller, but not light- 
er, work of the translation of the New Testa- 
ment, in the two months, January and Febru- 
ary, until his leaving the Wartburg at the 
beginning of March! " I have translated not 
only the Gospel of John, but the whole New 
Testament, in my Patmos ; but now Philip 
and I have begun to file it off, and, with God's 
help, it will be a nice work ; and that I may 
make a beginning at once I want you to get 
for us from the people at court the names, 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 79 

forms and, if possible, a sight of the precious 
stones mentioned in Rev. xxi." 

Then he reports to Spalatin on March 30, 
soon after his return from the Wartburg, and 
begs for his help and co-operation in the 
work, but that he must furnish only plain 
and simple expressions, for the language of 
the court and the castle could not be admit- 
ted into a book that was intended for the peo- 
ple and must be clothed in simple, popular 
words. As soon as he had revised the trans- 
lation with the help of his dear friend, it was 
put to press, probably by Melchior Lotther, 
at Wittenberg, who seemed, however, to be 
proceeding too slowly for the impatient Lu- 
ther, and he zealously hurried him on. It 
was finished on September 21, and this day 
was for many years celebrated by Bugeu- 
hagen and others as the festival of the Bible 
translation. The first edition was folio size 
and illustrated with numerous wood-cuts by 
Lucas Kranach. 

In a few weeks the whole edition of three 
thousand copies was spread abroad in all 
countries. A nobleman who had returned 
from Jerusalem some time after showed Lu- 



80 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

ther a copy which he had bought in that city. 
Numerous editions in various sizes were soon 
published. 

From this brief bibliographical report of 
his literary labors at the Wartburg we have 
reason to be amazed at the zeal and industry 
which he displayed in the work of the Ref- 
ormation even in his seclusion, and at the 
sympathy he felt and the co-operation he 
extended to everything that concerned the 
Church and the fate of his friends, adherents 
and fellow-laborers. " For my Germans," he 
wrote November I to his friend Gerbell, " I 
have been born ; them will I serve." And 
this idea he faithfully carried out in his asylum 
in that fortress. The Bible translation which 
he there began, and in part finished, gives 
sufficient proof of it. It is the greatest crea- 
tive act of the great Reformer. By it the 
Bible has been planted in the heart of the 
German people, and has become not only a 
reading-book, but a book that is read. With 
this book he laid the foundation-stone of the 
whole reformation-work, and at the same time 
renewed and established the language of Ger- 
many. 



• LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 51 

The events which were gradually in prepa- 
ration in Wittenberg during Luther's absence, 
and which culminated into full activity in the 
3*ear 1522, and which recalled Luther to pub- 
lic life, we will not here consider in detail. 
They lie outside of the Wartburg and proper- 
ly belong to the history of the Reformation. 
Carlstadt had put himself at the head of the 
movement in Wittenberg. His too rash zeal 
in abolishing church abuses, and the violence 
and inconsiderateness by which he sought to 
prosecute his designs, had occasioned great 
disturbances, which met with the most deci- 
ded disapprobation of the most faithful adhe- 
rents of the Lutheran doctrine and threatened 
to lead to the most disastrous results. The 
general apprehension and excitement in Wit- 
tenberg were much increased when Carlstadt, 
in order to prosecute his reforms in the church 
life, combined with some other religious fanat- 
ics — the so-called prophets of Zwickau and 
the Augustinian preacher Gabriel Didymus. 
These fanatics claimed the gift of divine inspi- 
ration. They abolished infant baptism and 
the doctrine of the Trinity and rejected all 
human learning. Carlstadt, at the head of 
v 



82 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

a crowd of students and citizens, stormed the 
castle church and demolished the pictures and 
altars, and everything else that was connected 
with Romish worship. 

Luther heard of these rash proceedings, 
and his mighty heart was fired with holy zeal. 
On March 19, 1522, he thus wrote to Wences- 
laus Link : " Satan has broken into my sheep- 
fold, and has taught that the freedom of the 
spirit may be used as an occasion to the flesh 
— that, disregarding the requirements of love, 
any and every thing presumably good may be 
done by a hard-hearted and wicked rabble. 
Carlstadt and Didymus have set up these 
abominations. These reasons have compel- 
led me to return ; so that, if Christ wills it, 
I may destroy the sport of the devil." Many 
friends of the cause also entreated him to come 
to Wittenberg to put a stop to these shame- 
less proceedings. 

Luther apprehended the peril to which 
these fanatical spirits were exposing his ref- 
ormation-work. We can easily imagine his 
painful anxiety in that narrow chamber on 
the Wartburg. From there he saw the fiery 
heavens, and the flames reflected from the 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 83 

burning of his church at Wittenberg, to which 
he was attached with all his soul, and which 
he w IS hed gradually to restore to its primitive 
purity; there he heard the tolling of the bells 
which summoned help and the despairing cry 
of friends. What was he to do ? He resolved 
. to go to Wittenberg to extinguish the flames 
of revolt with his own voice and earnest en- 
treaty. Already, at the end of February he 
intimated this determination to' his sovereign 
and protector: "God willing, I want to * he 
there myself. I hope your Electoral High- 
ness will not oppose me." 

The elector sent an officer of his court— 
Johann Oswald— to dissuade him from return- 
ing to Wittenberg. He informed Luther that 
he might have the privilege of giving his ad- 
vice to the Wittenbergers on the subject of 
the disturbances, but that on no account 
should he appear there in person, because the 
pope and the emperor might demand the de- 
livery of him into their hands; in which case 
the elector would not know how to get out 
of the dilemma. But his resolution could 
not be shaken. His conscience would not 
allow h.m to be dissuaded from his settled 



84 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

purpose, although a heroic faith was neces- 
sary to sustain him ; for the imperial edict 
had not yet been recalled, and any villain 
had the right to murder him wherever found. 
That he was not intimidated by any fear of 
peril, and that he regarded his departure as a 
divine command which was of more serious 
concern to him than that of his sovereign, 
though faithfully devoted to him, appears 
from his own words. " Yes," says he, " I 
am bound to suffer death for them " (the 
souls of men) ; " that I will also freely and 
cheerfully do by God's grace. God compels 
and calls and gives me reasons for it. It 
must and will be so. So let it be in the name 
of Jesus Christ, the Lord of life and death." 
In this, as in all other things, he did not seek 
his own glory or that of the world, but God's 
glory alone. 

On March 3, Squire George left the Wart- 
burg alone, dressed in knightly vestments and 
with full beard and sword. In Borna, near 
Leipzig, on March 5, he informed the elector 
in a letter of his proceeding, which in strong- 
est terms expressed his unshaken courage, 
his indomitable will, unawed by threats, 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 85 

his confidence in God and his assurance of 

faith. 

It was indeed a courageous step which he 
then ventured, on his own account, without 
permission — indeed, against the order of his 
exalted master and patron — to re-enter upon 
public life and to return to Wittenberg, there 
to protect the work of his Reformation from 
peril. Well may the deepest anxieties have 
agitated his soul during this retirement, but we 
have sufficient evidence how he maintained 
his cheerful fearlessness and tranquillity from 
his accidentally meeting two Swiss students 
in the tavern of the Black Bear in Jena. John 
Kessler of St. Gall, who afterward became a 
Reformer in his own country, had left Switz- 
erland in company with a friend, John Reu- 
tiner, to travel to the University of Witten- 
berg. According to the custom of poor stu- 
dents, they travelled on foot, and one after- 
noon arrived at Jena wearied and thoroughly 
soaked with rain and splattered with mud. 
Denied access to all the taverns, they were 
about leaving the town to proceed to a neigh- 
boring village to spend the night. They were 
met by a man who kindly inquired where they 
s 



CO LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

were going at so late an hour ; and when they 
related to him their sad case, he directed them 
to a tavern outside of the town, called " The 
Black Bear." There they were taken in. In 
the guest-room there sat a^ man alone in a 
corner, with an open book lying before him, 
in which he was reading. Immediately he 
saluted them very politely, and requested 
them to take a seat at the same table ; be- 
fore that, they had seated .themselves on a 
bench at a distance, on account of their soiled 
clothes. The man invited them to partake 
of some refreshments with him, which they 
did not refuse. They presumed he was an 
equerry, for he wore a little cap of red leath- 
er, breeches and doublet ; he had a sword by 
his side ; his right hand rested on the pom- 
mel, his left grasped the hilt. He inquired 
where they were from ; but, without waiting 
for an answer, he said, " You are Swiss, but 
what is the place of your residence in Switz- 
erland?" 

They replied, " St. Gall." 

He continued : 

"As you are going to Wittenberg, as I 
learn, you will find some good countrymen 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 8? 

of yours there; for instance, Jerome Schurf 
and his brother Dr. Augustin." 

"We have letters to them," said the stu- 
dents, and asked whether Luther had return- 
ed to Wittenberg. 

" I have certain information," was his reply, 
"that Luther at the present time is not in 
Wittenberg, but that he is soon to be there. 
But Philip Melanchthon is there, and teaches 
the Greek language." Then he exhorted the 
young men to devote themselves diligently to 
the study of the Greek and Hebrew languages, 
for which Wittenberg afforded peculiar fa- 
cilities. 

They expressed their determination to give 
themselves no rest until they had seen and 
heard the man who had attacked the priest- 
hood and the mass, and they added that their 
parents had assigned them to the clerical pro- 
fession and they were anxious to know all 
about the condition of things. 

" W T here have you studied ?" asked the 
equerry. 

" At Basel." 

" Well, what is the state of affairs in Basel ? 
I feel much interested in that school. Is 



55 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

Erasmus there yet? What is he doing?" 
he asked. 

"As far as we know, things go on well in 
Basel. Erasmus is still there ; but nobody 
knows what he is doing, for he keeps himself 
very" secluded from society." 

" But what do they think of Luther in ■ 
Switzerland ?" inquired the stranger. 

"As everywhere else, people have different 
opinions concerning him. Some cannot exalt 
him high enough, and thank God that he 
has revealed his truth through him and ex- 
posed their errors ; others condemn him as 
an intolerable heretic, particularly the clergy." 

" I understand it well," he replied. " It is 
the priests." 

During this conversation the stranger ex- 
cited the curiosity of the students. His intel- 
ligent observations, particularly his acquaint- 
ance with the Schurfs, Melanchthon and Eras- 
mus, appeared remarkable to them ; and their 
astonishment became still greater when one 
of them took in his hand the little book lying 
on the table and looked at it. It was a He- 
brew Psalter. He laid it down again, when 
the equerry took it to himself. 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 89 

" I would part with one of my fingers," 
resumed the student, " if I understood that 
language." 

" You might easily learn it," said the stran- 
ger, " if you diligently studied it. I also de- 
sire to improve in it, and read it daily." 

It had now become quite dark, Then the 
landlord came into the room and approached 
the table where the students were seated. 
When he observed their anxiety about Lu- 
ther, he said, " Dear friends, you would have 
been favored with a sight of him if you had 
been here two days ago, for he was seated at 
this very table." 

" That chagrined us very much, and we were 
angry with ourselves for having delayed so 
long, and blamed the bad roads, which hin- 
dered our progress. Yet it gratifies us very 
much that we are in the same house and seat- 
ed at the same table where he was. 

" The landlord laughed and went away. 
After a short time he called me out of doors," 
continues Kessler in his narrative, " and I was 
alarmed, thinking that he was going to call 
me to account for something improper I had 
said or done. Then he said to me, ' Since I 



90 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

certainly know that you are so anxious to see 
and hear Luther, I tell you he is the man who 
is at the table with you.' I thought he was 
playing a joke upon me, and told him that 
he wanted to gratify my desire to see Luther 
with a delusion. But he assured me again 
that he spoke the truth ; but he requested me 
to act as though I did not know it. 

" I returned to the room, but could not re- 
strain myself from whispering to my compan- 
ion, ' The landlord tells me that is Luther.' 
But he was incredulous, and replied, ' Perhaps 
he said it was Hutten and you did not under- 
stand him distinctly.' As his dress reminded 
me more of Hutten than of Luther, who was 
a monk, I let myself be persuaded that the 
landlord had said .' Hutten,' for the beginning 
of the names sounds somewhat similar. 

" In the mean time, two merchants entered 
the tavern and took off their cloaks and spurs. 
One of them then laid an unbound book upon 
the table. The equerry asked what sort of 
book that was. 

" ' It is Dr. Luther's exposition of the Gos- 
pels and Epistles, just printed and published. 
Have you not seen it ?' 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 9 1 

" ' I shall soon also get it,' was his only 
reply. 

"Then came the landlord and announced 
that supper was ready. We, however, re- 
quested him to prepare something for us 
apart. 

" ' Dear sir, only take your seats at the 
table : 1*11 see that all is right.' 

" When the stranger heard that, he said, 
' Come, I will pay the landlord.' 

" During the supper he spoke so edifying- 
ly and so kindly that the merchants and we 
were more interested in him than in the meal. 
He also spoke 'of the approaching Diet at 
Nurnberg, and thought that nothing good 
would result from it, as the great lords were 
more concerned about balls and frolics in 
general than about the word of God. ' But 
I hope,' he continued, * that the pure truth 
and word of God will produce more fruit 
among our children and posterity than among 
their parents, in whom error has taken deep 
root which cannot be easily eradicated. 

" The merchants also expressed their opin- 
ions, and the older of the two said, ' I am 
nothing but a simple, unlearned layman, and 



92 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

do not altogether understand these things ; 
but, as it strikes me, Luther must be either 
an angel from heaven or a devil from hell. I 
would cheerfully spend ten guilders if I could 
only confess to him, for he could properly in- 
struct my conscience.' 

"Then the landlord approached us and 
said secretly, ' Be not concerned about the 
cost. Martinus has paid for your supper.' 
That pleased us vastly — not because of the 
money or the meal, but because this man had 
entertained us at his expense. 

"After supper the merchants rose and went 
to the stable to see that their horses were well 
groomed. In the mean time, the stranger was 
with us in the room alone. We thanked him 
for his kindness, and said that we had taken 
him to be Ulrich von Hutten. 

" ' I am not he,' he replied ; and to the land- 
lord, who had just entered, he remarked, ' I 
have become a nobleman this evening, for 
these Swiss take me to be Ulrich von Hut- 
ten.' 

"The landlord replied, 'You are not he, 
but you are Martin Luther.' 

" He laughed and observed, ' These take 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 93 

me for Hutten, and you for Luther; I should 
properly be called Martinus Marcolfus.' 

" Then he rose, threw his cloak over his 
shoulders, took leave, and, shaking us by the 
hands, said, ' ^Vhen you get to Wittenberg, 
salute for me Dr. Hieronymus Schurf.' 

" ' Cheerfully and willingly will we do it,' 
said we ; ' but how shall we call you, so that 
he may understand the salutation?' 

" ' Say nothing more than "He who is to come 
salutes you." He will comprehend the words.' 
With these words he left and retired to rest. 

"After that the merchants again returned 
to the room, and wondered who the guest 
was that was at table with. them'. The land- 
lord insisted that it was Luther, and at last 
they were persuaded of it, but were sorry 
that they had spoken so unbecomingly in 
his presence. They said that in the morn- 
ing they would rise early and apologize to 
him, as they did not know him ; and that 
occurred. 

" In the morning they found him in the 
stable ; and Martinus, in reply to their re- 
marks, said, ' You said that you would cheer- 
fully spend ten guilders for Luther if you 



94 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

could confess to him. If you did so, you 
would soon find out whether I am Martin 
Luther.' And, to avoid being further rec- 
ognized, he mounted his horse and rode off 
toward Wittenberg. 

"After our arrival at Wittenberg we went 
immediately to Dr. Schurf to deliver our let- 
ters to him. On entering the room we found 
Martin just as we had seen him at Jena, to- 
gether with Philip Melanchthon, Justus Jonas, 
Nicolas Amsdorf, Dr. Augustin Schurf, who 
related to him what had occurred in that place 
during his absence. 

" He saluted us and smiled, and, pointing 
with his finger, said, ' This is Philip Melanch- 
thon, of whom I spoke to you. 5 

" Philip then turned to us and asked many 
questions, which we answered as well as we 
could. And thus we met those great men, to 
our high gratification." 

This is the narrative of Kessler's and his 
friend's interview with Luther at the Black 
Bear. 

During this journey he encountered a pa- 
pal priest at Erfurt, who boasted that he could 
point out a hundred errors in Luther's doc- 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 95 

trines, but when challenged to the task he 
retired in confusion. 

Luther did not return to the Wartburg, but 
remained at Wittenberg and prosecuted with 
untiring industry to the end of his days, the 
stupendous work which Providence had en- 
trusted to his hands. 

The elector submitted to what he could not 
prevent, especially as Luther's arrival at Wit- 
tenberg occasioned the highest gratification, 
even jubilant exultation, and contributed also 
to the restoration of the public tranquillity. 
The elector sent to him the Jurist Jerome 
Schurf, who conveyed his gracious salutation ; 
but he was instructed also to procure from 
Luther a written statement of the reasons 
why he returned to Wittenberg and an assur- 
ance that it was done without electoral con- 
sent, and, moreover, that he would not be 
an encumbrance to any one. The statement 
was to be so worded that it might be publicly 
shown, and Schurf was enjoined to keep the 
whole affair of his mission a secret. Luther 
was also to be informed that for several good 
reasons he would* not be permitted to preach 
in the castle church. 



g6 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

Schurf reported the result of his interview 
with " the worthy Martin Luther," at that 
time the real apostle and evangelist of Christ, 
and presented to His Grace Luther's writing, 
in which he gave his reasons for returning. 
They chiefly were that he was urgently 
called by the church in Wittenberg; that 
during his absence the devil had attacked his 
flock, which attacks he could not repel by 
writing; and that he apprehended a general 
commotion among the German people, which 
he thought he could prevent by his personal 
presence. He humbly deprecated any want 
of respect for the emperor or the elector, but 
that he felt irresistibly impelled to pursue that 
course. Accompanying this letter was a note 
in which he begged the elector that if the 
letter should not be satisfactory, he would 
graciously please to furnish a draft himself, 
declaring, however, that he did not object to 
the publication of his own letter, for he had 
said nothing which he was afraid to let the 
whole world know, and for which he would 
not suffer any penalty. The elector was 
pleased with the letter in general, only he 
suggested a few verbal alterations and addi- 



LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. Qj 

tions ; one of which was that in speaking of 
the emperor he should announce him as "the 
Most Gracious." 

Luther agreed to everything, and yet he 
could not suppress the following expressions 
in a letter to Spalatin : "I hereby send the 
letter to the elector. . . . One demand cha- 
grins me, and that is that I must call the em- 
peror ' my Most Gracious Lord ;' for the 
whole world knows that he has been very un- 
gracious to me, and everybody will laugh at 
this open duplicity. But I will prefer being 
laughed at and accused of deception rather 
than resist the expressed wish of the elector, 
though it be his infirmity. But I satisfied my 
conscience with the thought that it is the uni- 
versal custom to give the emperor his ordinary 
title, even if he be very ungracious and pro- 
voking to some. Above all things I despise 
duplicity, and I have up to this time yielded 
enough. There will come a time when I 
shall speak more freely and candidly." 

CONCLUSION. 
In this little book we have for the most 
part taken only that into the account which 
9 a 



98 LUTHER AT WARTBURG CASTLE. 

Luther himself has recited in his own letters. 
All more recent reports from other hands 
have been purposely omitted. The design 
was not to present a merely colored and un- 
authentic picture, but a true and trustworthy 
narrative drawn from reliable resources. Lu- 
ther's life and works in this fortress do not 
need the help of legend and fiction, and the 
Wartburg still stands renowned for the asylum 
which it afforded to the Reformer of the 
Christian Church who was anathematized by 
the pope and outlawed by the emperor, but 
whose memory is dearly cherished and his 
name revered by an admiring world. 



LUTHER AT COBURG 



FROM THE GERMAN 



PFEILSCHMIDT, 



WITH ADDITIONS. 



BY 

J. G. MORRIS, D.D., LL.D. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 

1882. 



Copyright, 1882. 



Westcott & Thomson, 
Stereotypers and Electrotypers, Philada. 



CONTENTS 



^Esop's Fables, 29, 63. 
Agricola, John, 20, 50. 
Altenburg, 20. 
Antonia de Serva, 12. 
Apology, 57, 58, 116. 

Barcelona, peace of, 9. 
Birds, kingdom of, 27. 
Bologna, 9, 12. 
Briick, 12. 
Bugenhagen, 14. 

Cambray, peace of, 8. 
Campegi, legate, 60. 
Caspar, Dr., 67. 
Charles V., 8. 
Clement VII., 9. 
Coburg castle, 5, 16. 

decoration of, 7. 

amusements at, 29. 

loneliness at, 35. 
Confutation, Catholic, 100, 

103. 
Conrad Cordatus, 17. 



Corpus Christi festival, 55, 
74- 

Daws, assembly of, 27. 

Desert, 27. 

De Wette, 27. 

Diet of Augsburg, 10, 42. 

Duke Ernest, 6. 

Eck, 99. 
Ehrenberg, 6. 
Ein feste Burg, 29. 
Elector John, 35. 

arrival at Augsburg, 40. 

letter to emperor, 51. 
Emperor's delay, 22, 44, 68. 

entrance into Augsburg, 
60. 

forbids preaching, 73, 75. 

moderation of, 82. 

Fast days, 55. 
Francis I., 8. 

Hans von Dolzigk, 20. 
Hausman, Nicolas, 17. 
3 



CONTENTS. 



Innspruck, emperor at, 34. 

John the Constant, 11,13. 
John Frederick, 12, 19. 
Jonas, 14. 
Journey to Torgau, 21. 

Katharine, Luther's wife, 

63- 
King Ferdinand, 66. 

Landgrave Philip, 73,108. 
Luther at Coburg, 5, 7, 23, 
24. 
reply to papists, 15. 
his influence, 24. 
writings at, 45, 46, 48, 

104, 105. 
death of his father, 48, 69, 

97- 
sympathy of, 67. 
visits to, 68, 70. 
impatience, 79. 
firmness, 95, 115. 
prayer, 96. 
on translation, 125. 
ring, 128. 

leaves Coburg, 139. 
letters from, passim. 

Mantua, 34. 
Margrave George, 73. 
Maria, queen of Hungary, 
102. 



Mass, 83. 

Melanchthon, 14, 61, 62, 64, 

123. 
Mercurinus, 46. 
Michael Kellner, 51. 

NURNBERG Council, I35. 

Pfizer, Life of, 29. 
Philip of Hesse, 12, 50, 55. 
Preaching at Augsburg, 51. 
Princes, firmness of, 86. 

Retinue to Coburg, 20. 

Schnepf, chaplain, 51. 
Spalatin, 20, 21. 
Sultan Soliman, 9. 
Swabach, 15, 
Sybilla of Cleves, 21. 

Tetrapolitana, 121. 
Torgau Articles, 15. 
Turks, 10. 

Urbanus Rhegius, 50. 

Veit, Dietrich, 29. 
Vincentius Pimpinelli, 83. 
Visits to Luther, 68. 

Weimar, 21. 
Wenceslaus Link, 63. 
Wittenberg, 14. 
Worms, edict of, 16. 

Zwickau, 17. 



Luther at Coburg. 



CHAPTER I. 

FROM THE IMPERIAL PROCLAMATION FOR 
THE DIE T OF A UGSBURG TO THE ARRIVAL 
OF LUTHER IN COBURG. 

(January i to April 16, 1530). 

COBURG CASTLE— at the present time 
designated as " The Fortress " — is one 
of the most interesting- and beautiful remains 
of the Middle Ages which have escaped the 
desolations of war and the corroding tooth 
of time. It is situated on an eminence a 
short distance east of the city of Coburg, 
and from its towers it furnishes to the lover 
of nature a view of the most enchanting 
landscape for miles around. It is especially 
memorable from the fact that it was here that 
Luther lived for six months during the ses- 
sion of the Diet of Augsburg. 



6 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

The oldest records date its erection as far 
back as A. d. 991, and for four hundred years 
it was the princely residence of many German 
rulers, some of whom improved it by various 
extensive and costly additions ; but for many 
years it was suffered to fall into decay. In 
1547, Duke Ernest built another castle, which 
he called " Ehrenberg," in the city, and the 
old fortress was used as a prison and a ware- 
house of cast-off furniture and other useless 
articles. The beautiful sculpture in wood and 
the splendid wainscoted ceilings were cover- 
ed with whitewash and had in part fallen 
down ; the magnificently-oramented doors 
were hanging loose on their hinges ; the 
rich collection of armor — of great historical 
value — was corroded with rust and thrown 
carelessly in damp vaults ; so that everything 
was on the fast road to destruction. 

In 1837 the enlightened duke Ernest deter- 
mined to restore the old castle to its former 
splendor, and employed the best artists of 
Germany to execute the work ; and now the 
ancient halls are exhibited to the admiring 
beholder in their primitive grandeur. The 
duke was especially desirous that Luther's 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 7 

residence here should be worthily commemo- 
rated, and ordered the room which the Re- 
former principally occupied to be decorated in 
a style befitting' the man and the place. The 
walls are adorned with life-size portraits of 
Luther and of his wife, painted on a ground 
of gold, with those of Melanchthon, Bugen- 
hagen, Jonas, Briick and other distinguished 
men of the time. Many other ornamental 
figures, coats-of-arms, mottoes, inscriptions, 
and other devices, on dark gold ground, 
decorate the walls and ceiling. 

The residence of Luther in this place from 
April 16 to the 5th or 6th of October, 1520, 
is an event of no less interest and importance 
than any in the history of the Reformation. 
The diversified experience of his inner life, 
and his activities as a Christian, Reformer, 
translator and expounder of the Scriptures, 
Germa?i patriot, husband and father, friend, 
author, humorist and poet, were developed 
in no period of his eventful life to a fuller 
extent than in the brief space of these six 
months ; and yet, on the other hand, what a 
unity in this variety! Whether his brow was 
clouded with deepest care or the light of un- 



8 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

ruffled calmness glistened in his eye, in the 
kind-hearted tenderness or the severe earnest- 
ness of his language he was always the same 
identical Luther — " Luther entirely as Lu- 
ther " — the man cast from one mould, the 
thoroughly original character, glorified by 
the divine lustre of faith, and borne up 
and pervaded by the Spirit of God. Thus 
Luther appears in Coburg. 

But before we turn to Luther in Coburg 
during the meeting of the Diet, we must give 
a brief narrative of the state of the times and 
of the preparations for the Diet, including Lu- 
ther's journey to that place. 

At the end of the year 1529 and the begin- 
ning of 1530, Protestantism was in a very 
depressed and perilous condition. 

Charles V. had secured peace in all coun- 
tries either by force of arms or by diplomacy. 
His difficulties with Italy were happily adjust- 
ed by the Peace of Cambray in August, 1529. 
The hands of Francis I. of France were tied, 
and for the present he was rendered power- 
less to prosecute any warlike enterprise 
against the emperor in Spain, in the Nether- 
lands or on the Rhine. In vain had the 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 9 

Turks under Sultan Soliman besieged Vienna 
from the 26th of September to the 14th of 
October, 1529, and they were driven back to 
Hungary. With Pope Clement VII., Charles 
had concluded a peace on June 29, 1529. 

In Bologna the emperor and pope, since 
November 5, 1529, had occupied two adjoin- 
ing houses, which were united by a door 
through the interior, and both rulers had 
keys which unlocked it. In immediate and 
undisturbed intercourse with each other, all 
their former differences were adjusted and all 
their measures of Church and State against 
the Protestants were here secretly concocted. 
How could circumstances have been more 
favorable to turn the religious affairs of Ger- 
many to the advantage of the empire and of 
popery ! Yet there was danger in delay. The 
evangelical States had assumed a positive 
stand at Speyer on April 19, 1529, and their 
meetings in Saalfeld, Rotach, Schlaiz, Swa- 
bach and Schmalkald, toward the end of the 
year and in the beginning of 15 30, betoken- 
ed a combination of efforts and of interests. 

Under these circumstances, Charles hasten- 
ed to adopt measures adapted to settle the 



10 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

religious difficulties which existed, and which 
threatened the peace of the empire and the 
unity of the Church. In the Peace of Bar- 
celona he obligated himself to make another 
peaceable attempt immediately to bring back 
the recusants to the bosom of the Romish 
Church ; but if this measure did not succeed, 
then he would employ force " to avenge the 
dishonor that had been heaped on Christ." 
To this end, on January 21, 15 30, at Bolo- 
gna, he proclaimed an imperial Diet to meet 
at Augsburg. Against an oecumenical Church 
council on German soil, Pope Clement had 
prudently protested, fearing that too many 
equitable demands would be made of the 
Church. The Diet was appointed for the 8th 
of June. The emperor declared his intention 
to be personally present, and ordered the 
princes also to appear. The proclamation 
breathed the most peaceful sentiments. The 
most important subjects which were to be 
considered were averting the dangers threat- 
ened by the Turks and deciding the religious 
controversies which distracted the people. In 
reference to the latter, it was expressly prom- 
ised that the question should be, " How shall 



LUTHER AT COBURG. II 

the divisions and disputes concerning the holy 
faith and the Christian religion be treated and 
decided ?" " It is the desire of the emperor," 
says the proclamation, " to heal the divisions, 
to submit past errors to our Saviour, and, 
further, patiently and kindly to hear and con- 
sider every opinion, sentiment and counsel, so 
that Christian truth may be elicited, and to 
lay aside everything which both parties may 
not agree upon, so that they may adopt the 
one ' only true religion, to live together in one 
comm union. Church and Christian unity, and 
in common to establish and maintain harmony 
and peace.' " A more favorable and generous 
proposition Charles could not have made to 
the evangelical representatives of the states. 
He herein expressed their own wishes dis- 
tinctly. If the intentions of the emperor had 
been honestly carried out, the result of the 
Diet would have been entirely different. 

John the Constant, elector of Saxony since 
1525, was, with the landgrave Philip of Hes- 
sen, at the head of the Protestant party. He 
received the proclamation on Friday, March 1 1. 
Opinions were divided at the electoral court 
upon the design of the emperor. Some of 



12 . LUTHER AT COBURG. 

the counsellors of the elector regarded the 
mildness of the call as a sham for the purpose 
of enticing the evangelical princes to Augs- 
burg that they might be personally seized, 
if necessary. They advised the elector not 
to appear in Augsburg. Others, among them 
the electoral prince John Frederick and Chan- 
cellor Bruck, also called Pontianus, were of a 
different opinion, which determined the decis- 
ion of the elector. In a letter to the emperor, 
Wednesday, March 23, he said: "Agreeably 
to the proclamation of your Imperial Majesty, 
I have determined, as far as God the Almighty 
grants me health, to be present at your pro- 
posed Diet." At the same time, he congrat- 
ulated the emperor upon his coronation, of 
which he had received notice the day before. 
This occurred at Bologna on Feb. 24, 1530, 
the thirtieth birthday of Charles, by the hand 
of the pope. At former coronations the elect- 
ors were invited to attend, and German knights 
formed the escort. Philip of the Palatinate 
was the only German prince present, and he 
was without official dignity on the occasion, 
and Antonio de Seiva, a Spaniard, command- 
ed the German soldiers. Not Germany, then 



LUTHER AT COBURG. I 3 

but Spain and Italy were the witnesses of this 
coronation of a German emperor. This was 
evidence enough of the deep chasm between 
the emperor and the empire. A wide and 
profound abyss on account of the gospel 
was opened in Germany, and divided it into a 
Catholic majority and a Protestant minority. 
Above all things, it was now the interest 
of the elector of Saxony to establish a safe 
scriptural basis for the ensuing religious ne- 
gotiations, and to arm himself with effective 
weapons for a possible conflict. At Speyer 
he with others had declared : " We have de- 
termined, with the grace and help of God, to 
adhere to that which alone is the word of 
God and the holy gospel as it is contained in 
the Old and New Testaments and which is 
purely preached, and to reject everything 
which opposes it. For therein, as the only 
true and proper guide of all Christian doc- 
trine and conduct, no man can err; and he 
who builds thereon will be secure against the 
gates of hell, and before which all human in- 
ventions must fall." To this principle John 
the Constant desired to be faithful at Augs- 
burg, and in accordance with it he would 
2 



14 • LUTHER AT COBURG. 

judge the imperial proposition for union. 
Everything which agreed with it was in ad- 
vance sanctioned by his conscience, and that 
which was contrary to it was already rejected. 

In preparation of this emergency, he in- 
formed his Wittenbergen theologians, Luther, 
Melanchthon, Jonas and Bugenhagen, of the 
invitation of the emperor and of the design 
of the Diet, and requested them to prepare a 
summary of " all the articles in dispute con- 
cerning the faith and other external Church 
usages," so that before the opening of the 
Diet he might fully make up his mind " how 
and to what extent he and other States who 
have adopted the true faith could properly 
and conscientiously negotiate upon these sub- 
jects without oppressive vexation on the part 
of the opponents." The theologians were or- 
dered to lay aside all other work, and person- 
ally to appear before him at Torgau, at the 
latest on March 20, with the result of their 
consultation. 

When the electoral summons- arrived at 
Wittenberg, Jonas was absent on a tour of 
visitation. Luther wrote to him to return 
immediately, but, not even waiting for him, 



LUTHER AT COBURG. - 1 5 

the three others present began the task. The 
" Swabach Articles," which Luther had pre- 
viously prepared for the meeting of the evan- 
gelical States and princes at Swabach (October, 
1529), were adopted as the basis. On March 
20, agreeably to the order, the four theolo- 
gians appeared at Torgau and laid before the 
elector the Articles, seventeen in number, for 
examination and acceptance. From the place 
of their delivery, they were called " The Tor-* 
gau Articles." Against Luther's will, they 
were soon made public, and were violently 
attacked by several theologians of the elec- 
torate of Brandenburg. Subsequently, at Co- 
burg, Luther vindicated them in a pamphlet 
entitled Martin Luther's Reply to the Screams 
of several Papists over the Seventeen Articles. 
From these originated the "Augsburg Confes- 
sion " by the hands of Melanchthon. They 
contained a brief summary of the opinions of 
the evangelical party upon God, redemption, 
sin, Church sacraments, ordination, etc., but 
the principal doctrine was justification by 
faith. 

Thus was the first and most important 
preparation made for the tour to Augsburg. 



1 6 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

Among other measures, mostly of a secular 
and administrative character, one is specially 
worthy of notice. An order was issued, that 
during the session in Augsburg prayer was 
to be offered in all the pulpits of the electo- 
rate for a happy issue of the Diet. In rela- 
tion to the retinue of the elector, it was de- 
termined that, besides Melanchthon, Jonas and 
the court-preacher, Spalatin, Luther should 
also accompany the elector, but that until fur- 
ther notice Luther was to remain at Coburg. 

It is very evident why his electoral protect- 
or did not take him with him to the Diet. 
Luther was yet under the ban of the edict 
of Worms (May, 1521). It was thought that 
being absent he could be of more service as 
an adviser, and that being present his impul- 
sive and independent nature might perhaps 
disturb the even course of things. It is very 
evident why Coburg was selected as the place 
of Luther's residence. It was situated within 
the electoral territory ; it afforded perfect se- 
curity and isolation, and, from its proximity 
to Augsburg, facilitated frequent intercourse 
between him and that city. 

It was, plainly, hard for the fiery spirit of 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 1 7 

Luther to submit to this measure. His very 
first letter to his friend Nicolaus Hausman, 
minister in Zwickau, gives evidence of his dis- 
content. Although sufficiently aware of the 
motives, he still says : " The prince has ordered 
me to remain at Coburg whilst the others go 
to the Diet : I do not know why." Still more 
ardently did the flame of his impatience grad- 
ually burn on account of the subtlety of the 
opponents in Augsburg and the timidity of 
Melanchthon and of his theological friends. 
If it had been left to, him, he would have has- 
tened to Augsburg on the wings of the wind, 
and, as in Worms, he would have stood up 
before emperor, princes and prelates, and have 
thrown the weight of his powerful word and 
presence in the scale of the decision on the 
fate of the gospel he so ardently loved. 

All this will appear more distinctly from 
his letters to be quoted hereafter. We will 
only add here what he wrote, on the Satur- 
day evening before his departure from Wit- 
tenberg, to his friend in Zwickau and his col- 
league Conrad Cordatus, upon the ensuing 
journey : " I am going with the prince as far 
as Coburg, and at the same time with Philip 



1 8 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

and Jonas, until we know how things are go- 
ing on at Augsburg. But you must take 
pains to have your churcli heartily pray for 
the Diet. Farewell in the grace of Christ, 
and remember me in your supplications." 
The letter to Cordatus concludes with this 
observation : " I hear that you are anxious to 
be present at the Diet. This I cannot advise. 
First, because I am not called to it, but that 
I am to accompany the prince only on the 
way within his territory, for certain reasons. 
Second, because I do not believe that any- 
thing will be done there in the work of the 
gospel, for the princes are not so zealous for 
the gospel, but will rather consult about the 
affair of. the Turks. Be content for the pres- 
ent ; you will get there at the proper time." 

It is evident from this that Luther had little 
hope of the adjustment of the religious diffi- 
culties by the Diet. But it turned out better 
than he feared. The providence of God, the 
resolution of the Protestant princes and States, 
and the influence of Luther itself claimed the 
triumph of evangelical truth in the conflict 
with the emperor Charles and his spiritual 
and secular confederates. The Diet at Augs- 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 1 9 

burg and Luther's residence at Coburg con- 
stitute the radiant point in the first develop- 
ment period of the Protestant Church. Sub- 
sequent memorials growing out of this mo- 
mentous era are only separated rays of that 
sun, and can hence cast but a feeble glimmer 
upon those heroes who in Coburg and Augs- 
burg, clothed with the panoply of faith and 
armed with the sword of the divine word, 
contended against human inventions and 
abuses in the Church. 

On Sunday, April 3, Luther preached in 
Torgau, in the presence of the electoral court, 
upon the words of Jesus (Matt. x. 32): "He 
that confesseth me before men, him will I 
confess before my heavenly Father." 

The courage of the faithful confessor of 
Christ, the aged elector John, was strengthen- 
ed by this sermon in the great purpose of 
bearing testimony to the pure gospel in Augs- 
burg before the emperor and the realm. Im- 
mediately after, he set out upon his journey, 
accompanied by his son, the electoral prince 
John Frederick, at that time twenty-seven 
years old, and with a numerous retinue. 

Besides Luther, Melanchthon and Jonas, 



20 LUTHER AT CO BURG. 

there belonged to this retinue of princes, 
dukes and knights Prince Wolfgang of An- 
halt, Duke Franz of Luneburg, the counts 
Albert and Jobst of Mansfeld, Duke Ernst of 
Gleichen and Lord von Windelfels ; of the 
electoral counsellors, there were Sebastian 
and Joachim Marschall von Pappenheim, 
Hans von Minckwitz, Frederick von Thun, 
Hans von Weissenbach, Kunz Goszman and 
Ewald von Brandenstein ; also the two chan- 
cellors Dr. Briick and Dr. Baier. Besides 
these, there were seventy noblemen with 
about one hundred and sixty mounted ser- 
vants, all armed with guns and clothed in 
brown-colored costume. As a theological 
counsellor, Duke Albert of Mansfeld took 
M. John Agricola of Eisleben with him. At 
Altenberg the electoral court-preacher, Spal- 
atin, was to join the retinue as secretary of 
the elector. The elector John had sent his 
court-marshal, Hans von Dolzigk, in advance 
to the imperial headquarters. He was com- 
missioned to treat with the two counsellors of 
the emperor, the dukes of Weimar and Nas- 
sau, concerning the investiture of the elector, 
as well as the confirmation of the marriage 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 21 

contract of John Frederick with Sybilla of 
Cleve and Iulich. Both of these demands 
the emperor had hitherto refused. This re- 
fusal was founded on Charles's displeasure at 
the elector and his son for favoring "the new 
doctrine." Both were made to feel the weight 
of the imperial dissatisfaction. By continuing 
this refusal, Charles hoped yet in Augsburg 
to shake the firmness of these men, hitherto 
so constant in the faith. ' The result con- 
vinced him, however, that Christian fidelity 
and conscientiousness could not be bought 
by worldly advantage. 

The journey of the elector and his retinue 
from Torgau to Coburg, with various delays, 
consumed nearly fourteen days. They spent 
the first night at Grim ma. On Wednesday, 
April 6, John delayed in Altenberg, from 
which place Spalatin joined the suite. On 
Saturday, the 9th, they arrived at Weimar. 
The next day, Palm Sunday, the elector, with 
John Frederick, Franz von Luneberg and 
others of his distinguished attendants, par- 
took of the Lord's Supper in both kinds 
(bread and wine) in the city church. On 
this occasion, and at other times during 



22 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

their sojourn in Weimar, Luther preached. 
At various other places during the journey 
he was called on to perform the same ser- 
vice. Finally, on the 16th, the Saturday be- 
fore Easter, they reached Coburg. Here the 
elector waited to receive authentic informa- 
tion of the place where the emperor then 
was, and of his arrival in Augsburg-. For 
at that time only so much was known, that 
the emperor had left Bologna on February 
22, and intended to remain for some time in 
Mantua. From this it is evident that the 
emperor was in no hurry to reach Augsburg. 
But it was soon enough discerned that he 
purposely delayed, in order thereby to ac- 
complish his design. How far he succeeded 
will be made evident from the subsequent 
narrative. 




CHAPTER II. 

FROM THE ARRIVAL OF LUTHER AT CO- 
BURG TO THE ENTRANCE OF THE ELEC- 
TOR JOHN OF SAXONY INTO AUGS- 
BURG. 

(April 16 to May 2, 1530.) 

THUS, then, Luther was in Coburg, where, 
at the command of the elector, a cham- 
ber looking south, in the second story of the 
well-guarded ancient castle, was assigned to 
him for his residence. He had been there 
before, when, in the spring of 15 18, he trav- 
elled to Heidelberg to the meeting of the 
Augustinian order. How much had oc- 
curred in the mean time, and what changes 
had taken place ! He had also since that 
time consulted with the Coburgers about 
their Church reforms in 1525. What an im- 
posing and instructive picture full of the 
freshness of life is gradually unfolded to our 
view when we linger near him in his solitude 
and see him in constant intercourse with the 

23 



24 LUTHER AT GOBURG. 

Diet at Augsburg", until his departure, at the 
beginning of October ! 

It will be appropriate at this place to pre- 
sent the general characteristics of this picture 
in an outline sketch. 

Here, in Coburg, Luther labored, prayed 
and counselled for half a year. During this 
time the Protestant princes, in connection 
with the evangelical cities and the greatest 
theologians of the day on the one side, and 
the emperor, kings, dukes, lords, knights and 
other influential opponents of the Reforma- 
tion on the other, surrounded with all the 
glory of the Church and the realm, in the 
midst of an assembly such as Germany had 
not seen before nor since, were exhibiting the 
remarkable spectacle of a spiritual combat 
for and against the liberty of the gospel and 
of conscience. From his chamber in this an- 
cient abode of princes and electors, invisible 
as the soul is to the body, Luther guided 
with the magnetic force of his spirit the 
friends of the gospel at Augsburg. He is 
the counsellor, comforter, leader of princes 
and theologians, the marshal of the warriors 
fighting for God and Christ with the sword 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 25 

of the gospel. Nothing was done on the 
part of the elector and his theologians with- 
out first having heard Luther's opinion. The 
eyes and ears of the Protestant participants 
in these transactions were turned to Luther. 
In the midst of all this he was untiringly 
active in the cause of the gospel in another 
sphere, and he sent forth a large number of 
his immortal writings. The most important 
of them, unquestionably, is his Admonition to 
the Clergy Assembled at the Diet of Augsburg, 
which had been sent to the press at Witten- 
berg early in May. This Admonition repre- 
sents the ecclesiastical errors and abuses 
prevalent. They are powerfully set forth, 
and so full of faith and gospel Protestantism 
as to be well worthy of studious perusal by us 
of the present day. His Letter to the Elec- 
tor Albert of Maycnce (July 6), with the ap- 
pended exposition of Ps. ii., and its applica- 
tion to the Diet and to the opposition of the 
mighty against the Lord and his anointed, is 
rich in thought and a living effusion of his 
devotion to Christ, and of his patriotic efforts 
against the malign influence of Rome over 
the Church and Germany. Quotations from 

3 



26 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

both these writings shall be given at the ap- 
propriate place'. He also wrote at Coburg 
his admirable Sermon on the Education of 
Young Persons, the satirical Echo from Pur- 
gatory, a treatise On the Keys (the power, of 
the Church to forgive and to retain sin) and 
Justification, an Extract from the Book on 
Monastic Vozvs, Forty Latin Discourses on the 
Power of the Church, Admonition to the Sac- 
rament of the Body and Blood of Christ, and 
a most excellent treatise on the qualifications 
of a translator of the Holy Scriptures with 
the title Letter on Translation, Thoughts 071 
Private Mass, Answer to the Questions of tzvo 
Persons of High Rank on Monastic Life and 
the Mass, and many others. 

And yet all this is but a portion of the 
labors which the gigantic industry of Luther, 
with pen in hand, performed, during his so- 
journ at Coburg, in the service of the evan- 
gelical Church. The translation of the Bible 
which he had begun on the Wartburg, and 
continued through the year 1521, was nearly 
finished at Coburg. 

He "not only received a large number of 
documents from various places, which were 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 2 J 

to be read and answered, but he wrote also, 
including these replies, so many letters that 
it is really wonderful how the time and 
strength of one man could endure to satisfy 
these numerous demands. Many of these 
longer letters are lost, and yet, in De Wette's 
Collection of Luther's Letters (four volumes, 
8voj, one hundred and nineteen were writ- 
ten at Coburg. Some of them bear the date 
"From the Kingdom of Birds," "From the 
Assembly of the Daws," in playful allusion 
to the multitude of daws which nestled in the 
towers of the castle and kept up a constant 
din; others are dated " From Gruboc," an in- 
version of the word " Coburg ;" others, " From 
the Desert," as nine years before, at Worms, 
to conceal the place of his residence ; and in 
only a few is the real name given. At the 
advice of his electoral patron, he employed 
these measures of precaution so that he might 
not betray his residence to his enemies. If 
they had known where he was concealed, 
they would have attempted to abduct him. 
At the same time, he protected himself against 
those who felt a sympathetic interest in him, 
and who might have disturbed him by fre- 



28 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

t 

quent well-intended visits, as was the case 
with some who had ascertained the place of 
his seclusion. Of these visits we shall speak 
at the proper time. 

Most of these letters are directed to the 
elector John, to Melanchthon, Jonas, Spalatin 
and many other persons, and some to his 
" dear master Lady Katharine Luther in Wit- 
tenberg - ." They all " breathe " — as Planck 
says, in contrast with the timidity of Me- 
lanchthon and of the other theologians in 
Augsburg — " that unterrified and cheerful 
courage which the weakest spirit cannot ob- 
serve without admiration, and cannot admire 
without being fired and borne along with it." 
At the same time, some of these letters are 
full of incomparable wit. which shows that 
Luther, amid the perils for the gospel's sake 
which threatened him, and suffering severe 
bodily ailments, could yet, by unshaken con- 
fidence in God and prayer, maintain a serenity 
of spirit which astonishes us the more the less 
it could be expected; for at Coburg he also 
endured much physical suffering, as at Wart- 
burg. He also suffered from sleeplessness, 
and several letters of Melanchthon to Luther's 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 29 

famulus, the industrious Veit Dietrich, are 
full of anxious inquiries concerning this evil. 
He also complains frequently of tormenting 
toothache and affections of the throat. But, 
above all, he was almost constantly troubled 
with ringing in his ears and vertigo, for which 
•the elector, through his private physician, Dr. 
Caspar Linderman, sent him medicine. 

He regularly attended the preaching of the 
castle chaplain, John Karg, often preached 
himself, frequently partook of the Lord's Sup- 
per, prayed diligently, amused himself with 
his lute and sang for his encouragement his 
celebrated hymn, most probably written here, 
" Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott." To the 
same end he made a collection of beautiful 
and appropriate Scripture passages and wrote 
on the windows and doors certain mottoes, 
that he might have them always in view, 
such as : "I shall not die, but live and de- 
clare the works of the Lord ;" " I shall lie 
down, and my sleep shall be sweet;" "The 
way of the ungodly shall perish." In order 
to sing them, he composed special tunes for 
them. Besides this, he found recreation in 
translating ^Esop's Fables. Sometimes he 
3 * 



30 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

descended from the castle into the town to 
visit the preacher John Lang and the knight 
Von Sternberg, and did not consider it be- 
neath his dignity to amuse himself occasion- 
ally with shooting with the bow and arrow. 
He, however, refused an invitation to a wed- 
ding, and sent instead to the young bridal 
couple a salt-cellar in the shape of a stag, 
which contained a ducat, besides some in- 
struction on three things which are expe- 
rienced in married life — trouble and labor, 
joy and happiness, vexation and disappoint- 
ment. 

The numerous letters to his wife, his touch- 
ing lamentations upon the death of his father, 
his sympathy with the joys and sorrows of his 
friends, his solicitude for the oppressed, his 
poetical, and yet simple, letters to his four- 
year-old son " Hanschen Luther," breathing 
all the overflowing affection of a tender father, 
— all these and many more of his acts present 
to us an interesting view of the inner life of 
this remarkable man. 

In a word, " Luther," says Pfizer in his 
Life of Martin Lutlier — " Luther in Coburg 
is a stupendous event. He whom they fear- 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 3 I 

ed to take with them to Augsburg, whom 
they carefully concealed — he, with unflinch- 
ing boldness casting aside the veil of caution 
from himself, appeared upon the battle-field 
with the irresistible power of his pen, and 
whilst, during the strife, the men specially 
engaged therein on the spot occasionally 
wavered on account of indistinctness of 
view, and seemed to lose the advantage of 
cool reflection and to falter for lack of courage, 
he, elevated above the dust of the conflict, was 
called on to observe everything, to weigh, 
determine, cheer, warn and rebuke ; and all 
this he did without presuming upon his supe- 
riority over ail his co-workers : he did it in 
the consciousness of being led and strength- 
ened by the Spirit of God, and by earnest 
prayer combining his activity with its proper 
source — the wisdom and power of God." 

This "stupendous event" in Luther's life 
can be properly appreciated only by an ex- 
amination of his writings and his extensive 
correspondence during his residence at this 
place in connection with the proceedings at 
Augsburg in all their particulars. Thus alone 
can we secure the original likeness in life-size ; 



32 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

but still, a sketch on a reduced scale will fur- 
nish us with traits of character which will ex- 
cite our most profound admiration. Such a 
sketch alone have we room to present, and 
that shall be drawn from his writings and let- 
ters to various persons as they have been 
published. Besides these, it will be neces- 
sary to have constantly in view the progress 
of events at Augsburg. For, as the history 
of the Diet cannot be properly understood 
disconnected from the history of Luther in 
Coburg, so, on the other hand, does Luther 
in Coburg appear only in its proper light 
through the Diet at Augsburg. The history 
of the Diet forms the background and the 
accessories for the picture of Luther at Co- 
burg. We shall therefore introduce all the 
events occurring there which will contribute 
to a full understanding and appreciation of 
the principal figure in our sketch. 



As Luther had frequently preached while 
on the journey to Coburg, he continued to 
perform the same service during the sojourn 
of the elector with his retinue at that place.* 

* All these sermons were published. .See Kraft's Col- 
lection, etc. 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 33 

Before the elector left, Luther wrote the 
following letter to his friend Hausman at 
Zwickau on April 18: "Grace and peace in 
Christ, my dear Hausman ! I have spoken 
with Martin Saugner and told him every- 
thing, as he will inform you. Besides, please 
tell our Cordatus that we are still here in a 
state of inactivity, and do not know when we 
shall leave. Yesterday a messenger came 
with letters, from which we learn that the 
emperor still delays in Mantua and will spend 
Easter there. It is also said that the papists 
are employing all means to prevent the Diet, 
because they fear that measures injurious to 
their interests might be adopted. Further, 
that the pope is indignant at the emperor 
because the latter is mingling with spiritual 
affairs and wishing to join the party against 
the pope; for he had fondly thought the 
emperor would be only his constable against 
the heretics, and bring back everything to the 
old condition. For they will change nothing 
and yield nothing; nor will they consent to 
an investigation, but only that we shall be 
judged and condemned and they restored 
to their former state. But thus they will be 
c 



34 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

put down and utterly come to naught. The 
ungodly must be blinded when they are des- 
tined to destruction. Some of them even 
believe that the Diet will fail, and that noth- 
ing will come out of it. The prince has 
ordered me to remain at Coburg whilst "the 
rest go to the Diet. I do not know why. 
Thus everything is very uncertain from one 
day to the other." 

According to this letter, news came to 
Coburg that the emperor was sojourning in 
Mantua, where he had already been for some 
time. Besides this, the elector received a 
letter from the emperor, dated at Mantua, 
April 8. In it he excuses the postponement 
of his arrival in Augsburg on the ground of 
his coronation and the necessary adjustment 
of Italian affairs. As soon as the latter were 
settled, he (the emperor) would hasten to Augs- 
burg by way of Innspruck, and \vould there 
give counsel concerning " the duties and affairs 
of the German people," as it was stated in the 
proclamation of the Diet. If the elector 
should not yet be on the way, " he need not 
start on the journey, but make such arrange- 
ments to be in Augsburg at the end of this 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 35 

month." He himself, " God willing," would 
personally appear at that time. 

This was the state of things when, on Fri- 
day after Easter, April .22, the elector John 
left Coburg and proceeded toward Augsburg 
by way of Bamberg and Nurnberg. The 
scene must have been very impressive when 
the elector himself, the electoral prince and 
ail the retinue — among them Melanchthon, 
Jonas, Bugenhagen, Spalatin — took leave of 
Luther. Uncertain of the results of the Diet 
and of the time when or whether they would 
ever see each other again, no doubt painful 
anxiety was expressed upon their counte- 
nances and many questions ominous of the 
future were asked. 

We can easily conceive how solitary Lu- 
ther must have felt when the last horse of the 
elector's retinue passed out of sight, and when 
he was left alone in the castle with no one but 
his devoted amanuensis Veit Dietrich and his 
faithful servant Cyriac. This sensation of 
loneliness is sufficiently revealed in letters to 
Melanchthon and Jonas, written on the very 
day of their departure. 

To Melanchthon he says : " We have final- 



$6 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

ly reached our Sinai, my dearest Philip, but 
we will make a Zion out of this Sinai and 
here build three tabernacles — one to the Psal- 
ter, one to the Prophets and one to JEsop ; 
but this last one is a worldly affair. The place 
is indeed a very pleasant one and favorable to 
study ; only your absence makes it sad. I 
am beginning to be extremely indignant at 
the Turks and Mahomet, because I must be 
a witness of that intolerable raging of Satan 
against body and soul. Hence I will most 
fervently pray until my cry shall be heard in 
heaven. ... I pray Christ to grant you 
refreshing sleep, and that you may be deliv- 
ered from painful anxieties — that is, from the 
fiery darts of Satan. Amen ! I am writing 
this for pastime, for I have not yet received 
my chest containing my papers and other 
things, nor have I yet seen either of the two 
castellans. In other respects nothing is want- 
ing in my solitary residence. The large wing 
projecting from the castle has been prepared 
for me, and I have the keys to all the apart- 
ments. I am told that more than thirty men 
are kept here, of whom twelve guard the cas- 
tle at night and two are posted on each tower. 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 2)7 

But why should I mention this ? Only be- 
cause I have nothing else to say. Salute Doc- 
tor Caspar and Magister Spalatin, etc. From 
the Kingdom of Birds, 3 o'clock, April 22, 
1530.— Martinus Luther, D." 

And yet how cheerful he could be under 
these circumstances, and how playfully he 
could write, abundantly appears from a letter 
to Justus Jonas of the same date. 

The same matter, though presented in a 
more lively style, he communicates to his 
"table companions" at Wittenberg, and on 
May 9 he wrote a similar letter to Spalatin. 
We shall here quote the one to his friends at 
Wittenberg : 

" Grace and peace in Christ ! Dear sirs 
and friends, I have received your joint letters 
and properly considered them. That you 
may know the state of things here, I will say 
that I, Master Veit and Cyriac are not going 
to the Diet at Ausrsbur?, but we are at- 
tending another Diet of a quite different 
character. 

"There is just under our window a small 
grove, in which the jackdaws and the rooks 
have opened a Diet. There is such a riding 
4 



38 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

to and fro, such an incessant cawing day and 
night, as if they were all thoroughly, crazily 
drunk; young and old cackle among each 
other at such a rate that I wonder how their 
voice and breath can hold out so long. I 
should like to know whether any representa- 
tives of this nobility and knight-errantry com- 
pany have thus far appeared among you; for 
it seems to me as if they had assembled here 
from all ends of the world. 

" I have not yet seen their emperor, but 
their nobles and heads of great families float 
and expand their tails constantly before our 
eyes. They are not, indeed, sumptuously 
clothed, but simply and in one color — all 
alike black and all alike gray-eyed. They 
all sing the same song in the same tune, but 
with a pleasing difference of pitch between 
the young and the old, the little and the big. 
They do not envy the palaces and halls of the 
great, for their hall is arched by the wide and 
beautiful -heavens, their floor is the broad field, 
and wainscoted with green, flourishing foliage 
and flowers, and the walls extend to the ends 
of the earth. Neither are they solicitous 
about horses and carriages : they have wing- 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 39 

ed wheels, by which they escape from the 
rifle and rouse the wrath of the sportsman. 
They are great and "mighty lords, but I do 
not yet know what subjects they are discuss- 
ing. 

"As far as I have learned from an inter- 
preter, they are carrying on a tremendous 
fight against wheat, barley, oats, and all spe- 
cies of grain, and many great knights in this 
war will perform mighty deeds. 

" Thus we take our seats in the Diet and 
hear with great pleasure how the princes and 
lords and other states of the empire joyfully 
sing and caress each other. But it gives us 
particular pleasure to see the knightly dignity 
with which they waggle their tails, wipe their 
bills, stretch out their necks, as if they had 
acquired honor in their attack upon corn 
and malt. We wish them all happiness, 
and that they all may be impaled upon one 
fence-rail. 

"But I hold that these are nothing else 
than the sophists and papists, with their ser- 
mons and writings. These I must always 
have in view, hearing their pleasing voices 
and observing what a useful folk it is in con- 



40 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

suming everything on earth and cackling for 
the whole world. M. L." * 

On May 2, four weeks after the departure 
from Torgau, the elector, with his retinue, 
was in sight of the towers of Augsburg. 
An immense concourse of people had gath- 
ered when he, the first of all the princes, who 
gradually arrived, made his entrance into 
the city. One hundred and sixty of his reti- 
nue were mounted on splendidly-caparisoned 
horses, and each man was armed. The bag- 
gage-wagons were drawn by one hundred 
horses besides. 

The elector remained in Augsburg from 

* This "grove" in which the council of jackdaws and 
crows was held is at the present time supplanted by a vine- 
yard and fruit-orchard. But in the immediate vicinity of 
the fortress there still stand some ancient trees, upon which 
the imperial deputies (the daws and crows) which so deep- 
ly interested the Reverend Martin still hold their meetings 
and make wonderful speeches. 

During the Thirty Years' War some of Luther's relics 
were sacrificed. Some mottoes in his handwriting are still 
preserved in an old ruined church in the neighborhood, but 
their authenticity cannot be assured. A bed of Luther's is 
still shown, also a table which is said to have been his. A 
number of vessels of Luther's time are also exhibited, but 
none which he himself used are extant at that place. 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 



41 



May 2 to September 23, and his quarters 
were the meeting-place of all the evangelical 
sympathizers with the Diet, and the point — 
as it were, a fountain — from which proceeded 
all the heroic deeds of faith which were en- 
acted in that city. 
4* 



CHAPTER III. 

FROM THE ARRIVAL OF ELECTOR JOHN 
OF SAXONY TO THE ENTRANCE OF THE 
EMPEROR CHARLES V. 

(May 2 to June i3, 1530.) 

THE Diet of Augsburg was the theatre of 
momentous proceedings concerning faith 
and conscience, and its grand results aided 
a large portion of Christendom in securing 
and preserving the most sacred possessions. 
Its history shows, even to the present day, 
how immensely important to the interests of 
the Protestant Church was the arrival of the 
elector John of Saxony on May 2, 15 30. 
This event opened the barriers to the ensuing 
contest for the prize of victory between the 
papal powers and the civil despotism on the 
one hand, and the gospel on the other. The 
2d of May gave the first signal for the begin- 
ning of the world-historical spectacle which 
was exhibited to the eyes of mankind by the 
emperor and the States. 

42 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 43 

It was of special interest and importance 
that the elector of Saxony should be the first 
of all the princes to arrive. Next to the em- 
peror, he was the most potent and influential 
among the German princes of his time, and 
the most esteemed among the evangelical 
States of the empire. His appearance on the 
spot displayed his earnest obedience to the 
head of the realm, and his early arrival bore 
unequivocal evidence of his heroism in the 
decisive hour. The astonishment which his 
advent in Augsburg occasioned his opponents 
shows the extent of the peril to which he had 
exposed himself and the responsibility he had 
assumed. The fact of his bringing with him 
a company of such distinguished theologians 
also showed to all, the nature of the purpose 
which he had in view. The word of God, 
above all, was the weapon with which these 
theologians, with Melanchthon in Augsburg 
and Luther at Coburg at their head, were 
armed, and which the Spirit of God qualified 
them to wield with terrible energy against all 
unevangelical. doctrines and customs. 

One circumstance especially displays the 
ruling of divine Providence in this early 



44 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

appearance of the elector in connection with 
the retarded arrival of the emperor. Slowly 
the latter pursued his journey from Mantua 
to Trient, Innspruck and Munich. In Inns- 
pruck he whiled away the time from May 4 
to June 6, and it was only on June 15— the 
evening before the festival of Corpus Christi, 
six weeks later than the elector — that he cel- 
ebrated his magnificent entrance into Augs- 
burg. His design was very evident : it was 
to embarrass the Protestant princes by an 
order to take part in the procession of the 
festival of Corpus Christi, and thus to put 
their unity and firmness to a very dangerous 
test. The painful waiting from week to week 
was in itself, irrespective of the great expense 
which it occasioned, calculated to exhaust the 
patience of the princes, and even to disgust 
them with the unnecessarily protracted arri- 
val of the emperor and the consequent post- 
ponement of the Diet. The expense of living 
increased just in proportion as the princes, 
with their large retinues, and the deputies 
arrived. The elector John alone paid over 
two thousand guilders a week for his main- 
tenance, which was a large sum for those 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 4$ 

times. The emperor was aware of all this, 
and presumed that these men would be will- 
ing to do anything to gratify him if he would 
only open the Diet and proceed to business. 

But their firmness and perseverance far ex- 
ceeded the hopes of the emperor; and as 
since the time of Joseph it has often been 
realized in the history of the kingdom of 
God, " But as for you, ye thought evil 
against me, but God meant it unto good ;" 
so it was in this case. 

In the mean time, the princely opponents 
of the Reformation — as the elector Joachim 
I. of Brandenburg, Duke George of Saxony 
and Duke William of Bavaria — hastened to 
the emperor at Innspruck and cunningly 
hinted to him that the elector John was de- 
vising dangerous plans. An irreparable loss 
also occurred to the Protestants in this in- 
terim. The only one of the counsellors of 
the emperor who cherished feelings favorable 
to the Protestants, and which he would have 
brought with him to Augsburg, was his chan- 
cellor, the venerable cardinal Mercurinus Gat- 
tinara. Melanchthon's letters from Augsburg 
are full of praise of this great statesman. He 



46 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

thus writes to Luther, May 22, upon the differ- 
ent opinions which contended for supremacy 
with the emperor at Innspruck relative to 
proceedings against the Protestants : " There 
are two opposing views among the imperial 
counsellors. One party maintains that without 
further ceremony he should condemn our 
cause by an edict ; the other holds that he 
should carefully investigate it and reform the 
abuses in the Church. To this latter party 
belongs the arch-chancellor Mercurinus, a man 
equally eminent as moderate, of whom it is 
said that, in spite of his infirm health, he 
followed the emperor in the hope that through 
his influence the affairs of the Church might 
be regulated in a becoming manner. He de- 
clared that he would not sanction any meas- 
ures of force. He is reported to have said, 
' In Worms it was evident that forcible meas- 
ures do not accomplish the design.' For he 
was in the retinue and counsel of the emperor 
already at Worms." 

Thus far Melanchthon ; but at the very 
moment when the emperor intended to leave 
Innspruck for Augsburg, and when he most 
needed such a Gamaliel, Mercurinus died, at 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 47 

Innspruck, on June 4, and by his death Bishop 
Waltkirchen of Constance, greatly to the dis- 
advantage of the Protestants, secured the pre- 
ponderance in the counsel of the emperor, 
who, for himself, was not disinclined to peace- 
able measures. 

• Though these disadvantages weighed heav- 
ily against the Protestants, yet, on the other 
hand, the gain which the long absence of 
Charles secured to the princes and their theo- 
logians — and among them to Luther also — 
was great. They gained time for counsel and 
action in the unobstructed promotion of their 
holy designs. This will be manifest when we 
come to consider the occurrences of the six 
weeks between the arrival of the elector and 
that of the emperor. The facts of the case 
and the letters of the various characters con- 
cerned will distinctly illustrate this point. 
They will also fully exhibit the unshaken 
confidence in God and the evangelical spirit 
of the men, and, above all, that of Luther. 



In reference to the personal affairs and ac- 
tivity of Luther, we must in advance remark 
that the death of his father occurred at this 



48 . LUTHER AT COBURG. 

time. He died at Mansfeld on May 29. The 
letters of Luther to Link and Melanchthon 
relative to this event are affecting evidences 
of the filial reverence and love which the 
great Reformer, in the height of his fame, still 
cherished for his father. They are rerriark- 
able contributions to the confirmation of the 
fact that he was both Christian and man, in 
the most exalted sense of the words. 

To the same period belongs the finishing 
of The Admonition to the Clergy. The manu- 
script had been sent to the press at Witten- 
berg on May 12 ; in the beginning of June' it 
was ready for publication, and on June 1 1 the 
electoral prince John Frederick sent copies to 
Innspruck to the court marshal Von Dolzigk, 
who was to distribute them among well-dis- 
posed men. For some time they were publicly 
sold at the residence of the elector, but sub- 
sequently the sale was prohibited upon the 
complaints of the opponents. 

In the mean time, Luther's activity was fre- 
quently interrupted by severe attacks of sick- 
ness, and also occasionally by very agreeable 
visits. One of the most agreeable was that of 
a noble lady named Argula von Grumbach. 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 49 

She was one of the warmest admirers of Luther 
— cherished and maintained his persecuted 
followers, wrote herself against the University 
of Ingolstadt and exhorted various princes to 
firmness in the Protestant doctrine. Jonas 
wrote to Luther concerning her, on June 25 : 
" Good heavens ! how much richer and better 
is Argula von Grumbach than all bishops who 
know not God and are not known of Him !" 

The complaint, also, of Luther on the per- 
severing silence of his friends at Augsburg 
for the time, is to be mentioned here. The 
intense longing for intelligence justified his 
complaint. The uncertainty of their condi- 
tion, and their multiplied labors — especially 
Melanchthon's — explain their protracted si- 
lence. Besides this, letters were lost, and 
perhaps couriers were unfaithful. 

But how otherwise than favorable to the 
cause of the gospel could that have been 
which occurred during the six weeks before 
the arrival of the emperor in Augsburg? 

Immediately after the entrance of the elec- 
tor John, he gratified the wishes of those cit- 
izens of Augsburg favorable to the gospel by 
ordering Agricola to preach in the church of 
5 D 



50 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

the Dominicans as well as in St. Catharine's. 
In the latter the celebrated Urbanus Rhegius 
preached, who, as the result of that sermon, 
was called as superintendent to Celle by Duke 
Ernest of Brunswick. He was a correspond- 
ent of Luther at the beginning of the Diet, 
and on his tour to Celle he spent a whole day 
with him at Coburg, and thus writes : " On 
my way to Saxony, I spent a whole day with 
Luther, the man of God, and I have never 
had a more joyous time. No age has ever 
produced a more powerful theologian. I have 
always esteemed him most highly, but now 
my admiration of him is still greater ; for I 
have seen and heard what no pen can describe. 
His books show the character of his mind 
and heart ; but when you see him and hear 
him talk concerning divine things with the 
spirit of an apostle, you will say, ' It is true 
what people say, that Luther is a greater man 
than any faultfinder or sophist is able to ap- 
preciate.' " 

Soon after, Philip, landgrave of Hesse, ar- 
rived at Augsburg with a retinue of one hun- 
dred and twenty horsemen. He also imme- 
diately established Protestant worship, and 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 5 I 

his court-chaplain, Schnepf, preached in the 
cathedral. Other distinguished men, such as 
Michael Kellner and others, performed simi- 
lar services in other churches of the city, 
which were attended by crowds of persons 
disposed toward the gospel. 

These sermons gave great offence to the 
opponents of the good cause, and it was not 
long before the fact was reported to the em- 
peror at Innspruck. He immediately issued 
an order, through the electoral ambassador, 
Hans von Dolzigk, that this preaching should 
cease; and when the latter demurred, the 
emperor sent two of his counsellors, the 
counts Nuenar and Nassau, with secret in- 
structions, to Augsburg, to carry his order 
into immediate effect. But in vain. In a let- 
ter to the imperial counsellors of May 31 the 
elector John repelled the accusations made, 
and in reference to the preaching expressed 
himself very decidedly : "As concerns the 
abandonment of the public worship here, we 
in all humility beg the Imperial Majesty not 
to compel us to order it, for we cannot do it 
with a good conscience, because our preach- 
ers teach nothing but the pure gospel and we 



52 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

do not allow them to mingle foreign and use- 
less disputations with their sermons. For 
this reason it would be very oppressive if we 
were compelled to forbid them teaching the 
word of God and the plain truth. As all 
men are exposed to great and daily peril, 
against which there is no other help and con- 
solation than the word of God, it would be 
very dangerous for us, in these times, to be 
deprived of the gospel. Inasmuch as we fear 
God and venerate His word, we cannot con- 
sent, with all due deference to his Majesty, 
that the. preaching should be forbidden. Our 
preachers daily and diligently exhort the peo- 
ple to pray for the welfare of all Christendom, 
and especially that God would, in these per- 
ilous times, grant grace to his Majesty as 
the power ordained of Heaven, and to elec- 
tors, princes and States of the empire, that 
all spiritual and worldly affairs may be so 
handled at this Diet as to promote the glory 
of God and universal peace and concord 
among men." 

The letter proceeds to give various other 
reasons why the service should not be inter- 
rupted, and states the happy results of the 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 53 

preaching upon many hearers. It maintains 
that not a word has been uttered by the 
preachers that could offend any one desirous 
of knowing the truth; that "nothing seditious 
or blasphemous or unchristian or against the 
Catholic doctrine" has been taught. It de- 
plores the melancholy consequences of pro- 
hibition, and in strong language shows that 
persistence in this purpose would be an evi- 
dence that the emperor had prejudged their 
cause and condemned their doctrine without 
a hearing. 

This letter had its desired effect, and for 
the time the preaching was continued. But, 
as a formal prohibition was to be expected at 
the arrival of the emperor, the elector sub- 
mitted the question not only to his theolo- 
gians and counsellors in Augsburg, but also to 
Luther in Coburg, whether it was their duty 
as subjects to yield to such a prohibition, or 
whether they would be justified, on grounds 
of conscience, to disobey it. The opinion of 
the jurists, probably written by Chancellor 
Briick, most decidedly favored the continu- 
ance of the preaching, even in case of an im- 
perial prohibition. But the theologians, at 



54 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

the head of whom stood Melanchthon, re- 
garded the emperor as the civil lord of the 
imperial city, and were of the opinion that 
whilst they might remonstrate, yet that they 
were in duty bound to submit to his will if 
he forbade preaching, not only in the churches, 
but even in their own residences. 

Luther also coincided in this opinion, and 
replied to the elector on May 15 : " Concern- 
ing the question of submitting to the empe- 
ror, if he should desire your Grace to silence 
your preachers, my opinion is now, as formerly, 
that he is our master; the city and all are his, 
just precisely as we should not resist your 
Electoral Grace in Torgau, where you are 
master, if you should desire or order this or 
that to be done or to be let alone. Still, I 
should be pleased to see, if it were possible, 
that an attempt be made in all propriety and 
humility to change the mind of his Imperial 
Majesty, and that he should not forbid the 
preaching of the word unheard, but ap- 
point some one to hear how we preach. The 
preaching of the pure, unadulterated word 
should not be forbidden, for we have not pro- 
claimed anything in the least degree seditious 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 55 

or fanatical. If this will be of no service, we 
must let might prevail over right. We have 
done our duty, and are free from responsi- 
bility, etc." 

In the same manner another question was 
settled. It was that concerning eating meat 
'and fast-days. As a question indifferent, and 
which must be left to the decision of every 
man's conscience, it was concluded that in 
this also, concessions might be safely made. 
With the same unanimity, on the other hand, 
did the theologians, on scriptural grounds, 
resent the expected demand upon the evan- 
gelical States to attend the procession of 
Corpus Christi. These were measures and 
subjects for investigation and settlement of 
such manifest importance, that the continued 
absence of the emperor was advantageous in 
allowing more time for reflection. 

This would also apply to the proceedings 
which could be transacted in the mean time 
relative to the indispensable unity in the Con- 
fession, on the part of the Wittenberg theo- 
logians and Luther, with the landgrave Philip. 
It is known that Philip leaned to the side of 
Zwingle on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, 



$6 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

and that he made zealous efforts to bring 
about a union between the Lutherans and 
the Sacramentarians, as Luther called the 
Swiss theologians. The colloquium which 
the landgrave instituted at Wartburg in 1529 
had this object in view, but it did not suc- 
ceed. He also continued these exertions at 
Augsburg, and was as anxious to accomplish 
the object as the elector John, who adhered 
to the true doctrine as taught by Luther, was 
strenuously opposed to it. The danger of 
division was great at that moment when 
unity was so desirable. For this reason, 
Melanchthon urged Luther to write to the 
landgrave to bring him over to the true 
faith and to warn him against fellowship 
with the Swiss. But before Melanchthon's 
letter reached Luther he had written one of 
his own suggestion, dated May 20. In this 
letter he argues the question vigorously and 
urges the landgrave to adopt the scriptural 
view ; but it did not move him from his po- 
sition, and he continued his unionistic ef- 
forts. Then Melanchthon, in connection with 
John Brantz, one of the most influential ad- 
herents of Luther and an imperial deputy to 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 57 

the council, wrote to the landgrave and 
endeavored to convince him of the unscrip- 
tural character of his exertions. Urbanus 
Rhegius also had a long interview with him, 
by invitation of the landgrave, and tried to 
convince him of his error. The result was 
that, he subsequently signed the Augsburg 
Confession and became a powerful supporter 
of the cause. It may be asked whether this 
union of both sides would have occurred, if 
the emperor had not delayed his arrival so 
long, thus giving time for discussion and 
negotiation. 

This is the proper place to allude to the 
most important subject connected with the 
further prosecution of the affairs of the 
Diet : it is the Confession of Faith, founded 
upon the Articles of Torgau, which was to 
be publicly delivered to the emperor. Al- 
ready, in Coburg, Melanchthon, in consulta- 
tion with Luther, had written an introduction 
to it, and on the way to Augsburg he had 
elaborated the Articles themselves. But the 
conscientious Melanchthon, upon further ex- 
amination, was not satisfied with this first form 
of his Apology, as he at first called the Con- 



58 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

fession, nor with that amendment and correct- 
ed review of it which the elector had sent to 
Luther for examination on May II, although 
Luther himself had expressed his entire ap- 
proval of it in his reply of May 15. "I 
have," he writes to the elector — " I have read 
the Apology of M. Philip. It pleases me very 
much, and I do not find anything to improve 
or alter in it; neither would it become me to 
do it, for I could not treat the subject so gen- 
tly. May Christ the Lord help to produce 
much and valuable fruit from it, as we hope 
and pray !" The Augsburg Confession was 
begun and finished in prayer. 

Notwithstanding this approbation, Melanch- 
thon continued to improve the Confession in 
matter and arrangement, as he reports to Lu- 
ther on May 22 : "I am daily improving the 
Apology. The Article on Vows was much 
too meagre ; I have taken it out entirely and 
substituted one more extensive and thorough- 
ly elaborated. At present I am working at 
' The Office of the Keys.' I wish you had 
looked through the Articles on Faith ; if 
they, in your judgment, were perfectly cor- 
rect, I would treat all the rest just as I am 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 59 

now doing. Here and there they must be 
altered and adapted to circumstances." 

If the Confession was subjected to such 
improvements until the moment of its deliv- 
ery ; if, irrespective of other consultations 
upon it, the " old chancellor Briick examined 
and amended it before and behind — i. e., at 
the beginning and end; : ' and if it received 
the finished perfection in which we now 
glory, — we must even at the present day 
give thanks to the emperor Charles and 
his councillors, who, by protracting the meet- 
ing of the Diet, afforded the necessary time 
for the completion of this momentous doc- 
ument. 

Before the arrival of the emperor in Augs- 
burg the evangelical States, from all directions, 
had proceeded to that city, and the remaining 
princes and deputies gradually assembled 
when the emperor, with his brother, King 
Ferdinand, and Anna, the wife of the latter, 
and Maria, the widowed queen of Hungary 
— who was a sister of the emperor and per- 
sonally acquainted with Luther — finally broke 
up their quarters at Innspruck on June 6. 



60 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

On their way they were everywhere received 
with loyal demonstrations of various kinds. 
They tarried three days at Munich amid the 
most brilliant festivities, and on June 15 they 
advanced toward Augsburg. 

It was after seven o'clock in the evening 
of this day that Charles — at that time thirty 
years and six months of age — mounted on a 
white stallion of Polish breed, with his nu- 
merous retinue of princes, prelates, vassals, 
pages, and domestics of Spanish, Flemish, 
Bohemian and German origin, arrived at the 
Lech bridge, a few miles from Augsburg. 
The electors, princes and prelates who had 
already assembled in the city rode out that 
distance with their retinue to meet him. The 
papal legate Campegi also saluted him and 
pronounced a blessing upon him. In addi- 
tion, the city council, citizens and clergy of 
Augsburg had come out to greet him with 
every demonstration of honor, and, thus 
surrounded with all the glory of worldly 
majesty and ecclesiastical protection, he 
entered the city, first proceeding to the 
cathedral, where solemn high mass was cel- 
ebrated, and then to his quarters in the epis- 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 6 1 

copal palace. " This pageantry," it is report- 
ed, " continued until ten o'clock at night." 

On this same evening the emperor urged 
upon the elector John, the margrave George 
of Brandenburg, the landgrave Philip and 
Duke Ernest of Liineburg, the demand to 
prohibit preaching by their theologians, 
and to participate in the procession of Cor- 
pus Christi on the next day. But before we 
proceed to this matter it will be proper here 
to introduce a number of letters of the elec- 
tor, of Luther and Melanchthon, which will 
in general serve to illustrate the purpose of 
our sketch Luther in Co burg. Besides other 
interesting particulars, we learn from them 
specially the active sympathy of the elector 
and Melanchthon in the condition of Lu- 
ther's health, and how he reciprocated this 
sympathy. 

Immediately upon his arrival at Augsburg, 
Melanchthon writes to Veit Dietrich, in Co- 
burg, on May 4 : " You did me a great favor 
by giving me an account of the doctor's con- 
dition, and of other matters. ... I am much 

6 



62 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

concerned about the state of his sore leg and 
his sleeplessness. You must take pains, by 
reciting stories and the use of other means, 
to prevent him from going to bed with his 
mind excited about the events of the, day, 
although I well know that it is hard, by the 
use of human means, to tranquillize his mind 
when in a state of excitement. We shall, in 
the mean time, betake ourselves to prayer in 
his behalf. ... If our Luther is restored to 
health, all will go well again. We have the 
best to hope from the Diet. . . . Probably I 
shall soon be with you, and bring with me 
the Apology, for examination, which is to be 
delivered to the emperor. . . ." 

Similar letters he frequently sent to Die- 
trich. To Luther himself he wrote, as men- 
tioned before, on May 22 : " We are all, in- 
cluding the elector, much concerned about 
your health. Hence we pray God that He 
would preserve you for the gospel's sake. 
We earnestly beg you to be careful about 
your health. Dr. Caspar has sent to you 
by the elector's messenger some medicines 
as tonics for your head and heart, for he 
loves you dearly." 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 63 

Melanchthon's strong attachment to Luther 
moved him to write to his wife, Katharine, on 
the same day, and Jonas and Agricola also 
included a few lines of salutation. These men 
express the most tender interest in the lady 
and the profoundest sympathy in her during 
the absence of her husband, and write words 
of encouragement and cheer. 

On May 8, Luther writes to Wenceslaus 
Link, in Nurnberg: "I am living here in 
peace and honor, and have begun to translate 
the remaining prophets, having finished Jere- 
miah. Perhaps I shall also publish several 
psalms, with an exposition ; for I will not sit 
here idly. ... I have also resolved to trans- 
late ^Esop's Fables for the benefit of German 
youth. I know well enough how to employ 
my time. I must confess that I would like to 
be with you, but what pleases God also pleases 
me. I am of no use on this tour, and could 
perhaps have done more at home by teaching 
and counselling; but I could not resist the 
call. ... I know nothing new from Witten- 
berg, except what Dr. Pommer* writes — that 

* BuG"enha<ren. 



64 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

the gospel is making good progress in Lu- 
beck and Liineburg, and that it is there openly 
and faithfully preached." 

From a letter of Melanchthon to Luther 
of May 1 1 we make the following extracts : 
" Hereby you receive our Apology, although, 
more correctly, it is a Confession ; for the em- 
peror has no time to hear extensive discus- 
sions. I have said everything which, as I 
believe, is useful and suitable. ... Duke 
George and Margrave Joachim have gone to 
Innspruck to see the emperor; they are there 
holding a Diet upon the subject of sparing 
our necks or not. ... It is not at all doubted 
that the emperor will forbid the Zwinglian 
theologians from preaching. We presume 
that, under the same pretext, he will also for- 
bid ours, as Eisleben* publicly preaches in 
the church. What is your opinion ? Shall 
we yield when the emperor demands it? For 
my part, I have answered that we must sub- 
mit to the will of the emperor, as we are 
guests in his city. But our old man " (it is not 
certain to whom Melanchthon here alludes) 

* Another name for Agricola. 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 6$ 

%t is creating difficulties. I beg you to write 
your separate opinion on a sheet of paper." 
Luther's approbation of the Apology, and 
his concurrence in opinion with Melanchthon 
on the subject of preaching in Augsburg, have 
already been expressed in his letter to the 
elector of May 15. 

Luther had neglected to answer several of 
Melanchthon's letters, but on May 12 he wrote 
one from which we shall make a few extracts. 
After speaking of his engagements in trans- 
lating the prophet Ezekiel he says : " But the 
outward old man is becoming very frail. I 
have felt a roaring in my ears not unlike 
thunderclaps ; and if I had not ceased work im- 
mediately, I should have fainted, which I could 
scarcely avoid during two days together. To- 
day is the third day that I have not been able 
to read a single syllable. It cannot last long; 
the years are hastening on. . . . Gradually 
the ringing in my ears moderates, after I have 
used medicine. This is the reason why I have 
not answered your letters. The day on which 
yours from Nurnberg came, I had an embassy 
of evil spirits in my chamber. I was all alone, 

6* E 



66 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

for Veit and Cyriac had gone away. Satan 
in so far gained the victory that he chased me 
out of my room and compelled me to go into 
company. 

" But these are private affairs ; in the outside 
world other events are occurring, which you 
report to me. It appears that Eck is begin- 
ning another controversy. What else is to 
be done at the Diet? The uncouth asses 
bray so much about the important affairs of 
our churches ; but let them bray on and 
fail. Master Joachim (Carfierarius) has sent 
me dry figs or dates or raisins, and has writ- 
ten twice in Greek; but I, when I shall have 
recovered, will answer him in Turkish, that he 
may have something to read which he does 
not understand. Why does he write Greek to 
me ? I would write more, but I am afraid 
that I will provoke a new attack of headache. 
... I beg you, as well as all our friends, to 
be very careful of your health, and that you 
do not, as I have done, bring upon yourselves 
such attacks as I suffer. Do not become 
murderers of yourselves and then say that 
God would have it so. We also serve God 
by resting ; . . . and hence he would have us 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 67 

observe the Sabbath so strictly. Do not 
throw this to the winds ; I am writing to you 
the pure word of God." 

During this correspondence Jonas lost his 
youngest son by death. Luther wrote to him 
a letter full of the tenderest sympathy, which 
he requested Melanchthon to forward to him. 

In the same way he also expressed his con- 
dolence with his friend Link, in Nurnberg, 
upon the death of a young daughter. 

The elector also felt the deepest interest in 
the condition of Luther's health, and wrote 
.to him a letter replete with affectionate con- 
cern, and informing him that his own physi- 
cian, Dr. Caspar, with the same messenger, had 
sent him medicine. This brought out from 
Luther a long letter of thanks, as w.ell as of 
instruction and encouragement in view of the 
impending Diet ; for the emperor had not yet 
at this time arrived at Augsburg. 

In his letters of the first week in June to 
Melanchthon and Link, Luther speaks several 
times of the visits he received, of the silence 
of his friends at Augsburg concerning im- 



68 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

portant matters, and of the death of his father. 
Among other things he says on June 2, 1530 : 

" Yesterday Hans Reynick of Mansfeld 
and George Romer, and to-day Argula von 
Stau ffen, were here. As I see that these visits 
are becoming too frequent, I have determined, 
after the example of your Stromer, either to 
give out that I am not at home or go some- 
where else for a day, so that the report may 
go abroad that I am no longer here. I beg 
of you so to speak and write in the future, so 
that nobody may come here to hunt me up. 
I want to be left alone and to keep your letters 
secret. 

" We are told here that the Diet is retro- 
grading, and will be at least postponed by the 
cunning and malevolence of the bishops until 
you shall have spent everything and be com- 
pelled to go home. It is doubted whether 
the elector of Trier and the Pfalz- will go to 
the Diet. The emperor, who is entirely under 
the control of the papists, gives all sorts of 
excuses for his tardiness in not goinsr to 
Augsburg." 

In a letter of June 5 to Melanchthon he 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 69 

complains bitterly of the neglect of his friends 
in Augsburg not writing to him as frequently 
as he thinks they should, and proceeds to say: 

" We have heard that the emperor has com- 
manded the Augsburgers to dismiss the mer- 
cenaries hired by them, and to remove the 
chains from the streets.* . . . To-day Hans 
Reynick writes that my dearly-beloved father 
died on May 29. This calamity has depressed 
me much ; . . . and, although it is a source 
of consolation, as Reynick writes, that he 
died in the faith of the gospel, yet the event 
has deeply agitated me and cast a gloom over 
my whole soul. ... I now enter upon the 
inheritance of the name, so that I am now 
almost become Luther Senior in my family." 

On June 7 he writes : 

" I see that you have all resolved to lacer- 
ate me by your silence, but, not to die un- 
avenged, I hereby give you notice that I will 
rival you in silence ; and if it is of no conse- 
quence to you what I do, I will praise my 
Wittenbergers, who write to me three times a 

* The city authorities, in apprehension of a riot, had, as 
was the manner of that da)', hired men to defend the city, 
and had stretched chains across the streets as barricades. 



JO LUTHER AT COBURG. 

week on business matters, to your once. . . . 
But I must here stop, not to give you occa- 
sion to be silent on account of my much 
scribbling. 

" My wife writes me that the Elbe has again 
risen high, although there has been no rain. 
High water is a prognostic of a great calamity." 

We will take this occasion to say in rela- 
tion to the visits several times alluded to that, 
besides Argula von Stauffen, Urbanus Rhe- 
gius, Hans Reynicke and George Romer, the 
following-named persons also visited him dur- 
ing this period : The merchant Cyriacus of 
Mansfeld, his sister's son; his brother Jacob ; 
Caspar Miiller, a counsellor of Mansfeld; Peter 
Weller, a legal friend of his from Wittenberg ; 
Caspar Aquila of Saalfeld; and the cele- 
brated Martin Bucer, whose visit will be 
spoken of hereafter. These few persons of 
distinction alone are here mentioned. Be- 
sides these, there was a large number of 
idlers and curious people, who exceedingly 
annoyed him. 

This is the proper place to mention The 
Admonition to the Clergy, which he wrote at 
Coburg. After an introduction, it treats, in 



LUTHER AT COBURG. /I 

eleven chapters, i. Indulgence; 2. The Con- 
fessional ; 3. Absolution; 4. Repentance; 5. 
Private or Mercenary Masses ; 6. The Ban ; 
7. The Form of the Sacrament; 8. The Celi- 
bacy of the Clergy ; 9. Church Discipline, 
Doctrine and Government; 10. Ancient 
Church Ceremonies; n. Fasting. The treat- 
ise is written in his usual pungent style, ex- 
hibiting the truth in all simplicity and expos- 
ing the errors of the Church with terrible 
severity. 

Amid such labors, experience and inter- 
course he spent at Coburg the eight weeks 
which elapsed between the departure from 
that place of the elector and the arrival of 
the emperor in Augsburg — truly a long time, 
considering the intense anxiety with which 
Luther anticipated coming events. It was 
nothing but his uninterrupted activity, as he 
himself tells us, that seemed to shorten the 
tiresome period. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FROM THE ENTRANCE OF THE EMPEROR 
CHARLES INTO AUGSBURG TO THE FIRST 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE OPPONENTS CON- 
CERNING THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 

(From the 15th to the 30th of June, 1530.) 

AS the arrival of the elector of Saxony in 
Augsburg on May 2 was the first sign 
of the beginning of the great spectacle, so 
the entrance of the emperor was the rolling 
up of the curtain. The prelude, however, 
endured -from the evening of June 15 to the 
24th, the day of the delivery and reading of 
the Augsburg Confession. Particularly im- 
portant during this time were the events oc- 
curring from the evening of the 15th to the 
20th of June. 

When the emperor, after the high mass in 
the cathedral, had repaired to the episcopal 
palace, and the other members of his retinue 
had ridden to their quarters, he detained the 

72 



LUTHER AT COBURG. ?$ 

elector John, the landgrave Philip, the mar- 
grave George of Brandenburg and Duke 
Ernest of Liineburg, and, as he was not 
sufficiently familiar with the German lan- 
guage, he through his brother Ferdinand 
strenuously insisted upon their prohibition 
of preaching, and upon their participation in 
the procession of Corpus Christi, on the fol- 
lowing day. They promptly rejected both 
propositions with a resoluteness that was re- 
markable. The valiant margrave George 
upon the spot replied in the well-known 
words, " Before I consent to be deprived of 
the word of God and deny Him, I would 
kneel down and allow my head to be cut 
off." 

The emperor, who caught the meaning of 
these words from the motion of the mar- 
grave's hand across his neck, replied, in his 
Low Netherland dialect, " Dear prince, not 
head off, not head off!" 

Similar courage was displayed by the land- 
grave Philip. When Ferdinand said that the 
emperor would not permit any preaching, he 
replied, " His Imperial Majesty is not lord and 
master of men's consciences." 
7 



74 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

It was in vain that the emperor again sum- 
moned the elector to him at eleven o'clock at 
night; he excused himself by saying he was 
compelled to seek rest. It was in vain also 
that in an interview of three hours next morn- 
ing he urged the evangelical princes to comply 
with his request, and through the Pfalzgrave 
Frederick he admonished them "that just as 
their forefathers, as pious Christian princes, 
did, so they also should uphold this act of 
worship and appear in the procession." Upon 
this the margrave George first replied in the 
name of his fellow-believers, and then in his 
own name. He again based his remarks on 
the word, alluded to his constant submission 
to the house of Austria and promised obedi- 
ence in all things, but assumed that the gos- 
pel must be left untrammelled for him. 

The procession of Corpus Christi was con- 
ducted with great pomp through the streets 
to the cathedral, the emperor himself carrying 
a burning taper. But no elector of Saxony 
preceded the emperor with a drawn sword, as 
was usual on such occasions ; none of the 
other evangelical States participated in it. 
Even of the citizens of Augsburg, scarcely 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 75 

one hundred joined it. To that extent had 
the times changed. In regard to the preach- 
ing the Protestant Christians were to present 
their objections in writing. This was done 
on the next Friday, June 17, "before break- 
fast," in the provost's apartment of the cathe- 
dral. The princes based their opposition to 
suspend preaching upon the ground that their 
preachers taught the pure gospel as it was 
held and preached by the Fathers and ac- 
cepted by the Christian Church in the purest 
times, and allowed also by the Diet at Nurn- 
berg in 1523. They argued the whole sub- 
ject at length, and vigorously maintained 
their civil and religious right to have the 
pure gospel preached to them by their own 
divines. 

The answer was the subject of a whole 
day's deliberation by the other spiritual and 
civil dignitaries in the presence of the empe- 
ror; and, as no harmonious result was reached, 
the further consideration of the matter was 
referred to a committee composed entirely of 
opponents of gospel-preaching. Unconcerned 
about it, and even against the advice of the 
elector, the margrave George allowed his 



y6 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

court-preacher, John Rurer, to preach on that 
day in St. Catharine's church. The reports 
inform us that an immense crowd of people 
attended the service. 

On Saturday, June 1 8, the agreement was 
arrived at to suspend the preaching on both 
sides. The emperor alone was to " have the 
power of appointing preachers, who were, 
however, to preach nothing but the pure 
gospel." 

In consequence of this, on the same even- 
ing, an imperial herald, amid a nourish of 
trumpets, rode through the streets proclaim- 
ing, "Hear, hear, hear ! His Imperial Maj- 
esty, our most gracious master, hereby for- 
bids any preacher, whoever -he may be, from 
preaching here in Augsburg, excepting those 
whom his Majesty may appoint, upon pain of 
his Imperial Majesty's punishment and dis- 
pleasure." 

In itself, this measure was, of course, dis- 
advantageous to the Protestants ; and yet, on 
the other hand, it was favorable to them, in 
so far that it silenced the most violent of their 
theological opponents. Among them were, 
besides the celebrated professor of theology 



LUTHER AT COBURG. JJ 

in Ingolstadt, Dr. John Eck ; John Faber, 
court-preacher of King Ferdinand ; John 
Cochlseus of Dresden, court-preacher of 
Duke George of Saxony; Dr. Conrad Wim- 
pina, Rupert Elgersma, Wolfgang Rebdorfer 
and John Mensing, — all theologians from 
the University of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and 
brought to Augsburg by the elector Joachim 
I. of Brandenburg. The preachers appointed 
by the emperor were of such a character as 
the elector represented in a letter to Luther 
of June 25 : " We are told that the preachers 
selected by the emperor in general do nothing 
more than read the text of the gospel, and 
that what they teach is childish^and irrelevant 
stuff. Thus our God must keep silent at this 
Diet. We must not, however, attribute all 
the blame to our pious emperor, but rather to 
our enemies and the clergy who are strenu- 
ously opposed to us." 

John Brentz reports to Isenman in Hall, on 
June 19, thus, in a postscript to his letter: 
"After I had written the above I hurried to the 
church to hear what the new preacher would 
have to say. I stood listening attentively ; but, 

besides the text, I heard nothing but the gen- 
7* 



78 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

eral prayer for the living and the dead, and the 
whole service was concluded with a recitation 
of the Creed. There you have a preacher 
who is neither evangelical nor papal, but only 
a mere text-reader. Everybody laughs at 
this performance, and, really, it is a very 
laughable affair when you see it with your 
own eyes." But, to depict the entire mode 
of these services, Brentz adds : ''After this 
service which they call preaching, they pro- 
ceed to perform the mass, at which King Fer- 
dinand with several princes is present ; for the 
emperor usually sleeps till nine or ten o'clock, 
and holds his mass long after the others. On 
this occasion there is singing, organ-playing, 
attended by a crowd of people. You see 
French, Spanish, negroes — even negro women 
— Italians, Turks ; and thus we here live in 
the midst of people of all nations. God grant 
that we were far removed from this character 
of people !" 

This was the state of things in Augsburg 
until June 19, and during all this time our 
Luther in Coburg. He still suffered from at- 
tacks, as he calls them — " not ringing," but 
" thundering" — in his head. But, notwith- 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 79 

standing, he labored hard, for on June 19 he 
was able to inform Cordatus in Zwickau that 
he had finished the translation of Jeremiah, 
and that within two days he would have the 
Confitemini ready. 

But from Augsburg he had learned only 
by common report that the emperor had ar- 
rived ; he knew nothing more definite about 
it. Full three weeks* haa elapsed, and he 
had received no letter from Augsburg. So 
great was his displeasure that he would not 
even believe Melanchthon when he told him 
that letters had been sent several times a 
week, but that they must have been lost. 
He in his impatience even declared that he 
would not read any letters which might sub- 
sequently come ; and when Melanchthon was 
informed of this by Veit Dietrich, he sent 
letters unsealed to Veit and requested him 
to read them to Luther, whether he would 
hear them or not. No wonder that he ex- 
presses his indignation upon the silence of 
his Augsburg friends to some others. 

While giving full vent to his displeasure, 

* Stang, in his Martin Luther, erroneously says " three 
full months." 



80 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

yet these letters contain many pious wishes 
for the emperor, " that pious noble blood 
Carolus " who is " a sheep among wolves," 
and whom his pretended friends have brought 
" into trouble and sorrow." They are also 
full of earnest entreaties in behalf of the 
elector and inquiries concerning him and 
other persons and the Diet. 

He also reports progress in the work of 
translation and describes his own physical 
condition. He writes to two brothers study- 
ing in Wittenberg — Peter and Jerome Weller 
— who occupied his own house, and who had 
undertaken the training of his little son John, 
now four years of age. It was at this time 
that he wrote that letter to this boy which 
has been so often printed, and which is re- 
garded as a model of a father's epistle to a 
child.* 

In the mean time, the friends at Augsburg 
had written to him. Besides conveying the 
information of the arrival of the emperor and 
of the firmness of the elector, they also ex- 

* See Luther's Journeys, p. 293. 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 8 1 

press the deepest solicitude in his well-being 
and apologies for their silence. He received 
these communications on June 19, the day on 
which he had written to his friends in Witten- 
berg- and other places. In his reply to Jonas 
on Monday, June 20, he rejoices over the 
steadfastness of the elector, and of Jonas him- 
self. He recognizes therein the result of his 
unceasing prayer. He complains that Me- 
lanchthon suffers himself to be annoyed by 
his own thoughts and fears, entirely forget- 
ting that the cause is in the hands of Him 
who said, " No one shall pluck you out of 
my hands." But toward the end he says : 
" Christ lives, and we shall also live even 
when we shall have died ; and even when we 
are dead, He will care for our families. If 
I should be called to go to Augsburg, I 
would doubtless go, Christ willing; but I am 
considering with myself if I should not fol- 
low my own will and go without being call- 
ed." From this we observe how intensely 
he longed to hasten to Augsburg and to 
appear before the emperor and the assem- 
bled States as he did at Worms with his 
" Here I stand ; I cannot do otherwise. God 

F 



82 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

help me ! Amen." He also wrote on the 
same day to Philip Schaepf, the court-preach- 
er of the landgrave Philip, and expresses his 
high gratification of the arrival of the land- 
grave at the Diet. 

Melanchthon reported to Luther on June 
19 that the emperor himself was conciliatory 
to the highest degree. Duke Henry of 
Brunswick had assured him that the em- 
peror always opposed or moderated severe 
measures proposed by the enemies of the 
gospel, that the archbishop of Mainz and 
the duke of Brunswick were to some de- 
gree concerned in their behalf, but, on the 
other hand, that the Bavarian dukes were 
decidedly inimical to them, and that the 
papal legate Campegi was the author of 
all the oppressive and persecuting measures. 

These letters had not yet reached the per- 
sons to whom they were addressed when, on 
Monday, June 20, the Diet was opened in 
the council-house. 

A religious solemnity preceded the open- 
ing. In the procession to the cathedral the 
elector John, as chancellor, carried the naked 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 83 

sword before the emperor ; for a mass, as the 
theologians replied to the demand of the 
emperor, was another thing than the Corpus 
Christi festival : Naaman served the king of 
Assyria in a heathen temple. But the most 
remarkable event accompanying this solem- 
nity was the discourse which the papal orator, 
Vincentius Pimpinelli, archbishop of Rossa, 
delivered before the singing of the offertory. 
The principal theme was the eradication of 
the " Lutheran heresy;" he attributed all the 
misfortunes of Germany to it. Hence, if the 
key of Peter is not sufficient to unlock the 
stony hearts of the German princes, the 
sword of Peter must be employed to break 
them. In this style he discoursed in Latin for 
nearly an hour. 

After the conclusion of the mass, his Im- 
perial Majesty, accompanied by all the elec- 
tors and States of the empire, numbering 
forty-two princes, proceeded to the council- 
hall with great pomp. When they had ar- 
rived at the hall, all the electors and princes 
took the places assigned to them ; for King 
Ferdinand, there had been arranged an ele- 
vated chair, hung with gilt tapestry, opposite 



84 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

the imperial throne. The Diet was then 
opened. 

The Pfalzgrave Frederick delivered a brief 
opening discourse in the name of the empe- 
ror. After this the imperial secretary, Alex- 
ander Schweiss, introduced the propositions 
to be submitted to the Diet. Those relating 
to what was called "The Religious Question " 
required "that the numerous complaints which 
the civil or spiritual authorities made against 
each other respectively should be submitted by 
both parties to the emperor in the Latin and 
German languages, who, with the divine guid- 
ance, would seek to effect a satisfactory adjust- 
ment of all difficulties." The propositions were 
generally expressed in gentle terms. All al- 
lusion to the Protestants and to Luther was 
wisely omitted. The States thanked the em- 
peror, through the elector Joachim, for his 
attendance, and requested permission to make 
copies of the programme. At one o'clock 
the emperor, amid the same pompous display, 
rode back to the episcopal palace. 

On the same afternoon the elector John 
invited his evangelical fellow-believers to his 
residence, and earnestly admonished them to 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 85 

cling unwaveringly to the cause of God and 
the pure doctrine and to defend it boldly, 
and to allow no threats of the enemy to tempt 
them to a denial of it. 

On Wednesday, June 22, it was determined, 
on the part of the evangelicals, not to con- 
sent to-any action on the subject of the Turk- 
ish troubles until the religious question had 
been settled. Even the Catholics favored this 
course of the proceedings. The result was 
that the Protestants received a command to 
have their Articles of Faith ready on Friday 
afternoon, June 24, at three o'clock. They 
asked for the postponement of a single day, 
but it was denied. 

Accordingly, the evangelical princes, the 
deputies of the imperial cities of Nurnberg 
and Reutlingen, and a large number of learned 
men, among them twelve theologians, assem- 
bled in the residence of the elector for the 
purpose of taking final counsel upon the Con- 
fession. After every Article had been ap- 
proved by every one present, it was resolved 
that the emperor should be requested to allow 
the Confession to be read in his presence be- 
fore the assembled Diet. They then pro- 



86 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

ceeded to signing it. Before they began, the 
Saxon theologians candidly declared to their 
sovereign that if he did not stand by them, 
they would themselves appear before the em- 
peror. But with the words, "God forbid that 
you should exclude me ! I will confess Christ 
with you," the elector John of Saxony took 
the pen and signed his name. Others fol- 
lowed him, such as the margrave George of 
Brandenberg, Duke John of Liineburg, Land- 
grave Philip of Hesse, the electoral prince 
John Frederick of Saxony, Duke Francis of 
Liineburg and Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt. 
The latter, on being advised to consider well 
what he was doing, seized the pen, and, with 
the remarkable words of heroism and faith, 
" I have engaged in many a stirring adventure 
for the gratification of others : why should I 
not, then, when it is necessary, in honor of 
and in obedience to my Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ, saddle my horse and by the sac- 
rifice of my life hasten to receive the crown 
of glory in the world to come ?" After these 
words he subscribed. The deputies from 
Nurnberg. and Reutlingen followed his ex- 
ample. 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 8/ 

But the most important step of all was to 
be taken, and that was the delivery of the 
Confession. It was to be done at the first 
session of the Diet, which commenced on 
Friday, June 24, at three o'clock in the after- 
noon. But, before all, the papal legate Cam- 
pegi gave in his credentials and delivered a 
Latin speech similar in length and spirit to 
that of Pimpinelli. He also attributed all the 
existing troubles to the corrupting novelties 
introduced by the so-called Reformers, and 
intimated that the best method of suppressing 
them would be a return to the obedience of 
the emperor and the pope. The elector of 
Mainz in his reply lauded this % discourse for 
its Christian character, its godly spirit and its 
tendency to Jthe restoration of order in the 
German empire. After this the signers of 
the Confession demanded the hearing that 
was promised them. But delegates from the 
Austrian dominions had appeared, to lay be- 
fore the Diet the troubles occasioned by the 
Turks. By order of the emperor they were 
admitted. Their oral complaints and a long 
written account of grievances occupied con- 
siderable time. Under these circumstances, 



55 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

the emperor postponed the hearing- of the 
evangelical Confession, and requested that it 
be delivered to him. But the elector and the 
other princes were more concerned about its 
being read. If it were delivered without 
being publicly read, the Confession would 
most probably never have been heard of 
again ; hence the Protestants insisted upon 
a hearing the following day. After a long 
consultation with King Ferdinand and the 
other Catholic powers, the emperor consent- 
ed to hear it read the next day in his resi- 
dence. This was extremely adverse to the 
wishes of the Protestants, for the largest 
apartment in the episcopal palace would not 
accommodate more than two hundred persons. 
Yet they adapted themselves to' the circum- 
stances, and gratefully accepted the imperial 
permission. 

And thus, on June 25, 1530, on the day 
after the festival of St. John, the heroic fore- 
runner of our Lord, in the afternoon, at four 
o'clock, the Augsburg Confession was read 
before the emperor and numerous German 
civil and ecclesiastical dignitaries in the chap- 
el of the episcopal palace. The emperor 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 89 

commanded that the Latin copy should be 
read. But the elector John reminded the 
emperor that they were assembled on German 
soil, and upon this he granted permission to 
have it read in German. Two hours were 
occupied in the reading ; but Dr. Christian 
Baier, the younger of the two chancellors, 
read to the end in a voice so loud that the 
multitude of people in the courtyard could 
hear every word. When the reading was 
finished, the chancellor, Dr. Briick, delivered 
both original copies to the emperor. It is 
said that Briick used the following language : 
" Most Gracious Emperor, this is such a Con- 
fession against which, with God's help, the 
gates of hell cannot prevail. 5 ' The emperor 
took the copies ; the German one he gave to 
the elector of Mainz, as the imperial arch- 
chancellor, to be deposited in the imperial 
archives, and retained the Latin copy for him- 
self, to be taken to Brussels for custody in 
the state archives. 

Neither of these original copies is extant. 
Duke Alba took away the Latin from Brussels, 
and the fate of the German is unknown. But 
the result remains. Guided by Melanchthon's 



90 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

hand and Luther's spirit, the evangelical pow- 
ers and their theologians had carefully cher- 
ished the fruit of a purified faith and a reform- 
ed worship. The birth-hour of the evangelical 
Church had now struck. A Confession in 
common is essential to the character of' the 
Church : up to this time the Protestants had 
no such common basis ; from this time forth 
faith in the grace of God through Christ, or 
justification, which ensues from faith in the 
redemption " wrought by Christ," was the 
special bond of all Christians, and the word 
of God, as the only rule of all Christian 
faith and practice, was the universal bond 
of all those who protested against the meri- 
toriousness of good works and the validity 
of human ordinances in the Church. In this 
there was no difference of opinion between 
John of Saxony and Philip of Hesse, or 
between Luther and Zwingli. 

They were of one mind in the essentials of 
the Confession, but they divided upon the " is" 
and " signifies" in the Article of the Sacra- 
ment of the Body and Blood. Still, the land- 
grave Philip signed it. On the other hand, 



LUTHER AT CGBURG. 9 1 

the cities of Strassburg, Constance, Lindau 
and Memmingen, who were inclined toward 
Zwingli's views, refused to subscribe it, and 
subsequently handed in a special Confession 
of Faith, which was drawn up by Martin Bu- 
cer, and which aimed at evading the contro- 
versy on the Lord's Supper by the use of 
ambiguous and indeterminate expressions. 
Afterward, on July 15, the cities of Heilbron, 
Kempten, Weinsheim and Weissenburg sub- 
scribed. 

How the soul of Luther must have rejoiced 
when he received the letters from the elector 
and Melanchthon which informed him of the 
fact that the Confession was about to be pub- 
licly read on that day ! How he must have 
shouted with rapture when he finally received 
the report : " The Confession has been read 
and delivered to the emperor " ! 

Jonas wrote to him more particularly to- 
ward the last of June, and informed him of the 
favorable impression which the Confession 
had made upon some who had been decided 
opponents of the Reformation. Among other 
things he says : " The archbishop of Salzburg 



9 2 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

is said in a private conversation to have ex- 
pressed his wish that the sacrament should 
be administered in both kinds, that celibacy 
of the priesthood should be voluntary, and 
that the mass should be improved. He was 
also willing to allow liberty in relation to fast- 
ing and other church regulations. But that 
one monk should reform all was destructive 
of peace, and was not to be endured." 

Bishop Stadion of Augsburg also set him- 
self against the forcible measures of the Diet. 
He also reported that, notwithstanding all 
these favorable signs, Melanchthon was deep- 
ly dejected, and was inclined, for the sake of 
peace, to yield in many points, particularly in 
respect to the authority of the bishops. He 
begged Luther to write to Melanchthon on 
the subject, for he, Luther, " was the chariot 
of Israel and the leader thereof." Melanch- 
thon at the same time wrote several letters to 
him and to Veit Dietrich, in which he spoke 
of the delivery of the Confession and of the 
favorable feeling of the archbishop of Mainz, 
the bishop of Augsburg and the duke of 
Brunswick, as well as of the unrelenting 
enmity of the elector Joachim and of Duke 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 93 

George. He also complained of the melan- 
choly condition in which he found himself 
and from which God alone could deliver him, 
and implored Luther's advice, wherein there 
might be some concession made to the oppo- 
nents in the Articles of Both Kinds in the 
Sacraments, Sacerdotal Celibacy and the Mass. 
To Veit Dietrich he wrote expressly that amid 
the dangers by which they were surrounded 
in Augsburg, nothing was more indispensable 
than the counsel and consolation of Luther. 
The influence of Luther was everything to 
them; if he should forsake them, it could 
easily be imagined to what dreadful perils 
they would be exposed. 

Luther, in his humility, had a quite differ- 
ent conception of his relation to the triumph 
of the gospel and of the exclusive help of 
God. Neither would he hear another word 
of yielding any farther, and it was not possi- 
ble for his mighty spirit to sympathize with 
the timidity and despondency of his friend. 
On the day after he had received his letter he 
wrote (June 29) : " I have received your Con- 
fession, and cannot comprehend how you 



94 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

want to know wherein we shall yield to our 
opponents. It is another thing with our elec- 
tor. It is his duty to consider wherein he 
may yield if danger threatens him. As far 
as I am concerned, there has already been, too 
much given up to them in the Confession; 
if they reject that, I do not see wherein I 
could yield any more, unless I shall before 
see their grounds and clearer Scripture proof 
than I have as yet seen. The matter engages 
my attention day and night. I revolve it in 
my mind; I dispute with myself and bring up 
in array the whole Scriptures. The result is 
that I am more and more convinced of the 
truth of our doctrine, and I am therein 
strengthened every day, that I, with God's 
help, will not consent that anything more 
shall be taken away from it, let the conse- 
quences be what they may." After he had 
mentioned that their prayers for him had 
helped to break the power of the evil spirit 
who had buffeted him, and that he now was 
in good health, he proceeds to impart conso- 
lation to Melanchthon in a style eminently 
characteristic. 

In a postscript he adds that he did not 



LUTHER AT COBURG. g$ 

more particularly reply to the question con- 
cerning the points to be surrendered, because 
Melanchthon did not specify what the oppo- 
nents demanded, and thus concludes: "I am 
ready to surrender everything except the gos- 
pel ; that they must not take from us. I will 
not consent to anything that is contrary to the 
gospel." 

He wrote letters of encouragement and 
comfort to other friends. 

His book on The Recall from Purgatory was 
begun about this time. 

No more striking exhibition of Luther's 
confidence in God, of his delight in prayer, 
and generally of his evangelical spiritual- 
mindedness can be made than that which we 
observe in Veit Dietrich's letter to Melanch- 
thon of June 30. fi I cannot," says he, " suf- 
ficiently admire his firmness, composure, faith 
and hope in these trying times. But he braces 
himself up against them by a diligent use of 
the word of God. No day goes by in which 
he does not spend at least three hours in 
prayer. 

"I was once fortunate enough to hear him 



g6 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

pray. What an ardor, what a faith, in his 
words ! He prayed so devoutly as one 
should speak with God ; with such hope 
and confidence as one who speaks with his 
father. ' I know,' said he, ' that Thou art 
our dear God and Father'; hence I am cer- 
tain that Thou wilt destroy the persecutors 
of Thy children. If Thou doest it not, the 
danger is Thine as well as ours, for the 
whole cause is Thine ; what we have done, 
that we were compelled to do ; and hence, 
dear Father, Thou must protect us.' " 

Veit continues : " When I heard him utter 
these words in prayer with a clear voice, my 
heart leaped in me for joy, because he so 
strenuously pleaded the promises as if he 
were certain that everything must occur just 
as he desired it. Hence I do not doubt that 
his prayer will be of unspeakable service in 
this lost cause (as some apprehend) which is 
to be considered in the Diet." 

Concerning the impression which the death 
of Luther's father made upon him, and of the 
manner in which he consoled himself by the 
use of the Scriptures, Veit had previously 
written to Luther's wife. " I beg you," says 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 97 

he, " that you will not be uneasy about the 
doctor. He is, thank God ! well and in good 
spirits, and has now recovered from the blow 
which his father's death gave him, although 
at first it was very severe. As soon as he 
saw Hans Reynick's letter he said to me, 
1 My father is dead.' He immediately took 
up his psalter, went into his chamber, and 
there grieved so excessively that he was 
quite unwell all next day. After that was 
over, he recovered his usual composure." 

Katharine sent the likeness of one of her 
children in her letter of condolence, which 
gratified him beyond expression. 




CHAPTER V. 

FROM THE FIRST PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
OPPONENTS TO THE TIME OF THE READ- 
ING OF THE CATHOLIC "CONFUTATION." 
(From June i to Aug. 3, 1530.) 

LUTHER had now been nearly three 
months in the fortress of Coburg, and 
was compelled to remain three months 
longer. 

The detention had become almost intoler- 
ably wearisome. He ardently desired, as 
early as the middle of July, that the elector 
and his friends might be released from the 
duty of remaining at Augsburg, and that he 
himself might be permitted to leave Coburg. 
When the Diet had reached its culmination 
by the reading and delivery of the Confes- 
sion, he saw that nothing more was to be 
expected, but the Diet " dragged its slow 
length along" until November 19. From 
June 26 to August 3 the " Confutation of 

98 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 99 

the Augsburg Confession " was considered ; 
then, as this Confutation did not accomplish 
its design, the restoration of harmony with 
the Protestants was discussed from August 
3 to September 7 ; and finally, as this also 
failed, the subject of employing force to 
bring back everything as it was before 15 17 
was debated from September 7 to Novem- 
ber 19. 

When, on the day after the delivery of the 
Confession — Sunday, June 26 — the emperor 
consulted with the Catholic States as to the 
course now to be pursued, there were not 
wanting those who advised an immediate re- 
newal of the edict of Worms and forcible 
suppression of the innovations. Others, and 
among them King Ferdinand, thought it bet- 
ter to refer the Confession to a committee of 
learned and impartial men for examination. 
Others advised the preparation of a treatise 
which would refute the Confession. This last 
suggestion was approved by the emperor; 
and Dr. John Eck, with nineteen other theo- 
logians — all decided enemies of the Confes- 
sion — was appointed to write what was called 



100 ' LUTHER AT COBURG. 

a " Confutation." By this partial act the 
original intention of the emperor " to hear 
every man's opinion of both parties," and 
thus, if possible, to secure a peaceful means 
of reconciliation, was practically nullified and 
the coming result expressed. 

The Catholic theologians had finished their 
task by the 13th of July. It was, however, 
no refutation, but a long series of calumnies 
against their opponents, and hence, in the 
judgment of the emperor, was not fit to be 
brought before the assembly. So decided 
was the displeasure of the emperor with this 
paper that, as Spalatin says, "he rumpled and 
rolled it so violently that of two hundred and 
eighty leaves only twelve remained whole." 
In consequence of a new order of the empe- 
ror, the learned Dominican Faber, the court- 
preacher of Ferdinand, undertook another 
refutation ; and thus the time passed until 
Wednesday, August 3, when this Confuta- 
tion was read in the same episcopal chapel in 
which the evangelical Confession had achieved 
its brilliant triumph on the 25th of June pre- 
viously. This intermediate time the emperor 
employed in forcing, if possible, the elector 



LUTHER AT COBURG. IOI 

of Saxony to an apostasy from the gospel by 
threatening the refusal of the investiture so 
long as he persisted in his disloyalty to the 
Romish Church. Charles also employed va- 
rious measures of questionable honesty in at- 
tempting to create dissension between the 
deputies from the imperial cities and the 
princes. But both attempts failed. The elec- 
tor as well as the other subscribers to the 
Confession continued faithful to the gospel, 
and the delegates from the cities maintained 
their previous relations to the princes. 

Melanchthon was well aware of the pain- 
ful anxiety with which Luther in Coburg 
longed for intelligence from Augsburg. The 
former also in his timidity felt the need of 
Luther's counsel, and in his dejection the 
need of his comfort. In a series of letters to 
Veit Deitrich and to Luther, he communicated 
to him the most important events. Besides 
that which we have just reported concerning 
the Confutation and the steadfastness of the 
Protestant States, Luther heard, through Me- 
lancthon, that among the opponents of the 
Confession the papal legate Campegi and 

9* 



102 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

Duke George of Saxony were the most vio- 
lent. On the other hand, several of the Cath- 
olic States were favorably disposed. The 
archbishop of Mainz had strenuously recom- 
mended peaceable measures, but he did not 
succeed, and on this account absented him- 
self from the Diet on the next day. The 
bishop of Augsburg was of the same mind. 
Especially was the sister of the emperor, the 
widowed queen Maria of Hungary, to be com- 
mended. She was a woman of heroic spirit, 
at the same time of distinguished piety and 
practical wisdom, and tried to win the favor 
of her brother in behalf of the Protestants ; 
of course she was obliged to use great tact 
and discretion in the pursuit of her design. 
Melanchthon also stated that the cautious 
friend of the Reformation, Erasmus, in a let- 
ter to the emperor, had heartily approved of 
those Articles which were particularly dis- 
cussed — the Sacrament in Both Kinds, Priestly 
Marriages and the Abolition of the Private 
Masses ; on the other hand, that CEcolampa- 
dius had written against Luther; that Zwingli 
had sent in a printed Confession of Faith 
which proved that he was not of sound mind, 



LUTHER AT COBURG. IO3 

for he persevered in his old errors on original 
sin and the Lord's Supper; and that Capito 
and Bucer arrived at the same time from 
Strassburg. 

Besides this, Melanchthon sent a list of 
calumnious writings of Catholic theologians 
against Luther, as well as Melanchthon's ex- 
positions of certain theological principles, and 
begged Luther's judgment upon them. When 
Faber's " Confutation " was read, on August 
3, Melanchthon wrote thus to Luther on Au- 
gust 6 : " Finally, we have heard the reading 
of the Confutation and the emperor's decision. 
The latter is hard enough. For before the 
Confutation was read the emperor declared 
that he would abide by the opinions therein 
expressed and required the princes to do the 
same ; if not, then he, as protector of the 
Church, would allow of no division in Ger- 
many. This was the substance of his dis- 
course. Threatening as it was, after the 
reading of the Confutation we felicitated each 
other heartily, for it is a childish production 
throughout. It is the most miserable of all 
the miserable books ever written by Faber." 

This was the reason why, as Melanchthon 



104 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

further reports, when the princes requested a 
copy of it, the emperor promised them one 
on the next day only upon the express con- 
dition that it should not be published nor 
copied. All this and his other communica- 
tions, if not without confiding prayer for 
divine help, are yet accompanied to a still 
greater extent with expressions of discour- 
agement and dejection. 

During the progress of these events and 
reports from Augsburg, Luther continued to 
be as active in his writings, prayers and cor- 
respondence amid much physical suffering as 
he had been in the preceding three months 
of his sojourn in the fortress. 

Of his writings at this time, we must make 
particular mention of his Exposition of Ps. 
cxviii. He could send copies to the abbot 
Frederick in Nurnberg, to whom he dedi- 
cated it, and to the poet Coben Hesse, then 
living in Nurnberg, only on August 22, 
because the printers at Wittenberg had been 
particularly tardy. Fie ardently expresses 
his admiration of this psalm, and designates 
it as " the beautiful Confitemini." 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 105 

He had scarcely finished this when he com- 
menced the Sermon upon the Duty of Parents 
to Send their Children to School. This is one 
of the most capital treatises of those times on 
the general subject of school-training and on 
the necessity of universal education. It shows 
clearly how far in advance of his times Luther 
was on that subject, which Protestantism has 
ever regarded as essential to the extension 
and perpetuation of the cause. 

About this time he also wrote Thoughts on 
the Abolition of Monasticism and of the Mass 
by the Princes. Ccelestin reports that both 
queens — Anna, the wife of Ferdinand, and 
Maria, the widowed queen of Hungary — 
had asked questions of Luther relative to 
these subjects. 

The Recall from Purgatory is dated July, 
1530, and Lies concerning the Keys was writ- 
ten while the former was going through the 
press. At the same time he expounded the 
one hundred and seventeenth psalm and 
dedicated it to his patron of Coburg, the 
knight Hans von Sternberg, from which 
dedication we learn that Sternberg had made 
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and that Luther 



I06 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

had listened to the narrative of his tour 
"with supreme delight." 

His severe and protracted labor upon the 
Prophets occasioned such violent attacks of 
headache -and exhaustion that he abandoned 
the work temporarily in August. Only Ho- 
sea had been finished during some intervals 
of comparative exemption from sickness. 

During the month of July he wrote a large 
number of letters to some of the highest 
ecclesiastical dignitaries, to the elector and 
to his friends, and yet, amid all these per- 
plexing labors, he sometimes complains of 
want of employment ! 

Everything connected with the Confession, 
and all the subjects which at that time en- 
gaged the attention of the Reformers, were 
treated in these letters. He cheered them on 
in their perilous enterprise and animated the 
desponding. He implored them to make no 
further concessions, but to stand by the truth 
unflinchingly. He thanks them for their sym- 
pathy, but declares that their extreme anxiety 
about his health and their fears that he over- 
exerted his strength were groundless. 



CHAPTER VI. 

FROM THE READING OF THE CATHOLIC 
CONFUTATION TO LUTHER'S DEPARTURE 
FROM CO BURG. 

(From Aug. 3 to Oct. 6, 1530.) 

IMMEDIATELY after the reading of the 
1 Confutation important events occurred in 
Augsburg. 

As early as Friday, August 5, the emperor 
ordered the evangelical princes and States to 
reunite with the Catholic States on the basis 
of the Confutation, and, in the event of their 
refusal, they might expect coercive measures 
to be pursued. Unawed by this threat, the 
Protestants, certain that their Confession was 
founded on God's word, and, firmly resolved 
not to depart from that word, would not com- 
ply with this requirement. The result was 
that the Catholic party proposed to treat with 
the Protestants once more by a commission. 
The emperor approved of this proposition, 

107 



io8 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 



and a commission of sixteen Catholic princes, 
bishops and deputies met together on Satur- 
day, August 6. 

Another important event occurred on the 
same day : it was the sudden withdrawal of 
the landgrave Philip of Hesse. Against the 
express will of the emperor, whose permission 
he had requested, but had not obtained, and 
without the knowledge of his fellow-believers, 
he left Augsburg on August 6 and travelled 
toward home. His councillors remained in 
Augsburg. He left behind him a letter to 
the elector of Saxony, entreating him not to 
depart from the word of God in the least de- 
gree, and declared that "he was ready to sac- 
rifice life, property, country and subjects for 
it." As the ground of his departure, he gave 
the serious sickness of his wife. The pre- 
sumption was that in the present circumstances 
he would take no further part in the Diet, and 
held it to be more advisable to prepare him- 
self for an armed defence of the gospel. A 
new turn was given to the condition of things 
by this unexpected event. The emperor could 
not but discern that the measure of his de- 
mands was full. The displeasure at the im- 



LUTHER AT COBURG. IO9 

perial requirement that the Protestants should 
submit God's word and their conscience to an 
external power had reached its limits, and 
outward obedience to the emperor was only 
maintained by their continuance in Augsburg, 
They still hoped that the emperor, agreeably 
to his declaration in the Diet that he "would 
graciously hear the opinions of both sides," 
would restore peace and unity. By the de- 
parture of the landgrave this limit was tran- 
scended. 

There was one thing yet which might have 
secured the desired peace. At the meeting 
of the commission on August 6 the bishop 
of Augsburg proposed that some important 
privileges should be granted to the Protest- 
ants, or, in other words, that some concessions 
should be made to them. This measure was 
not approved, and no progress toward recon- 
ciliation was made. A new measure was now 
adopted, and a committee from both parties 
was appointed to deliberate upon a method 
of securing unity on individual doctrines and 
usages. At the beginning, from August 16 to 
August 20, there were fourteen — two princes, 
two lawyers, and three theologians from 
10 



IIO LUTHER AT COBURG. 

each side. Melanchthon was the Protestant 
speaker, and Eck the Catholic. From the 
24th of August the number was reduced to 
seven, and really it now seemed as if an 
agreement would take place, as so many con- 
cessions were made on both sides. 

But it did not reach this issue. On the 
other hand, things took a quite different turn, 
which we can learn in the fewest words from 
a letter which Luther wrote to Hausman in 
Zwickau on September 23 : " You have prob- 
ably already heard that certain judges, and 
among them Melanchthon, were chosen to 
consult about securing unity in doctrine and 
faith. But, as they could not agree, they 
again referred the matter to the emperor, and 
they are now waiting for his decision, although 
it would appear from recent letters that they 
have brought up other means of reconcilia- 
tion, which have not been communicated to 
me. At the first meeting our opponents re- 
quired that we should yield the private 
masses, and also to retain both canons with 
the comments, and to understand the word 
sacrifice in the sense of a commemorative me- 
diatory offering; also that we should agree 



' LUTHER AT COBURG. Ill 

that it be left to the liberty of every one to 
partake of the Lord's Supper in one or in 
both kinds ; finally, that we should consent 
that the monks and clergy who were married 
should be divorced without delay and return 
again to the cloisters, and that they should 
no longer be regarded as having been mar- 
ried. If we agreed to this, they would con- 
sent to the sacrament in both kinds, and to 
bear with these divorced wives on account of 
the children until a future council, just as it is 
granted to others to live in unmarried com- 
munities. Here you see, my dear Nicolas, 
the insolent pride of Satan, who as a strong 
man leads at his will those whom he has cap- 
tured, and is not ashamed to inflate them with 
such abominable, disgraceful and dishonoring 
propositions. But our men would not yield 
to them, but consented to reinstate the bish- 
ops in their jurisdiction upon condition that 
they would diligently make provision for and 
encourage the preaching of the gospel and 
abolish all abuses, and also some holy days. 
But nothing was accomplished. Our adver- 
saries are boldly bent upon destruction ; an 
irresistible destiny drives them on." 



112 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

This was the condition of things in the be- 
ginning of December between the Catholic 
majority, headed by the emperor, and the 
Protestant minority, led by the elector John. 
But Luther himself contributed very much 
to the firmness with which the elector John, 
his chancellor Briick and Melanchthon — too 
much inclined to concession — maintained the 
rights of the gospel. Specially beautiful and 
elevating is the letter which Luther wrote to 
Briick already before the reading of the Cath- 
olic Confutation, wherein he seeks to animate 
him with confidence in the help of God. It 
is dated August 5. We shall content our- 
selves with some extracts from it : 

" I have written several times to my gra- 
cious ruler, and to others of our party, that I 
begin to think I have overdone it, especially 
in writing to him as though I doubted that 
God's comfort and help were enjoyed by him 
in a greater degree than by me. But I did it 
at the suggestion of several of our friends, 
some of whom are so dejected and anxious as 
though God had forgotten us. But He can- 
not forget us : He must first forget Himself. 
In that case our cause would not be His 



LUTHER AT COBURG. II3 

cause, and our doctrine would not be His 
word. But if we are certain of it, and do not 
doubt that it is His cause and word, then 
most surely is our prayer heard and the help 
we need is already 'prepared for us. That 
cannot fail. For He says, 'Can a woman for- 
get her sucking- child, that she should not 
have compassion on the son of her womb ? 
Yea, she may forget, yet will I not forget 
thee !' 

" I have recently witnessed two miracles. 
The first was when I was looking out of the 
window. I beheld the stars in the heavens 
and the whole beautiful vault of God, and yet 
I nowhere saw pillars on which the Builder 
had set this vault; and yet the heavens did not 
fall down and the vault still stands unmoved. 
Now, there are some who are looking for 
pillars ; and, as they cannot see them, they 
are trembling with fear that the heavens will 
certainly fall, and for no other reason than 
that they cannot see the columns. If they 
could see them, then the heavens would stand 
and all would be plain enough. 

"The other was that I saw heavy, dark 
clouds floating over us in such immense 

10 * . H 



114 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

masses that they might be compared to a 
mighty ocean ; and yet I saw no foundation 
on which they could rest, nor any vessel in 
which they could be caught ; and still they 
did not fall upon us, but saluted u 3 with an 
angry look and dispersed. When they had 
departed, the rainbow beautifully illuminated 
the base on which the clouds rested and the 
vault above us. The base and vault were so 
fragile that they also melted away in the 
clouds and seemed to be rather a lustrous 
foam, as if shining through colored glass, than 
such an immense base, so as to lead one to 
be as apprehensive of it as of the enormous 
weight of water. And yet the fact was that 
it was the apparently infirm floating vapor 
that sustained the water and protected us. 
Yet there are some who pay more attention 
to, and have more fear of, the water and the 
thick clouds and heavy weight than the light 
and thin vapor, for they are anxious to know 
the sustaining force of such floating masses ; 
and because they cannot do that, they fear 
that the clouds will occasion an everlasting 
deluge." 

He proceeds to stimulate his friends to 



LUTHER AT COBURG. I I 5 

steadfastness, and hopes to hear of the 
eventual triumph of the gospel cause. 

After the reading of the Confutation, the 
character of which was communicated to 
him, he wrote to Melanchthon thanking 
God that the document was so utterly inde- 
fensible, and encouraged him with the ex- 
clamation, " But now strike heavy blows 
with all your might !" When the elector 
had sent him the resolutions of both par- 
ties concerning the sacrament, private masses, 
the right of princes to reform their own sub- 
jects, the canon of the mass and church or- 
dinances, and requested his opinion concern- 
ing them, he sent elaborate answers on each 
distinct point, displaying extraordinary acute- 
ness and scriptural knowledge. 

The persevering determination of Luther 
to stand immovably upon the ground of 
God's word and the disinclination of the 
opponents to submit to this condition — or, as 
it is briefly expressed in # Luther's letter to 
Spalatin on August 26, " because the pope 
did not want a reconciliation " and Luther 
would not consent to anything not consistent 



Il6 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

with the Scriptures — necessarily broke up the 
meeting of the small committee on August 
31, and the whole affair was submitted to 
the decision of the emperor. From this time 
forth there was nothing more to expect from 
the Diet. The Protestants had to be satisfied 
with the fact that they had borne their testi- 
mony to the faith and to have aimed at secur- 
ing peace. They had come to hear whether 
the opponents would sanction their doctrines 
or not, and had left it to them to do as they 
pleased. 

The decision of the emperor could be an- 
ticipated, and it was not long in coming. As 
early as September 7 the rumblings of the 
coming storm were heard. The emperor had 
it proclaimed to the Protestants that he was 
ready to submit the subject to a general 
council. The appeal to a general council 
was adopted, and the emperor threatened 
that, in case of disobedience, he would ex- 
ercise his authority " as guardian and pro- 
tector of the Church." Notwithstanding, 
the Protestants replied " that they had never 
swerved from the word of God nor adopted 
a new rule of faith ; that they were ready 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 1\J 

at any moment to accept everything which 
could be substantiated by the Holy Scriptures ; 
that they could not grant more, and on this 
ground it was impossible for them to enter 
into any further negotiations." 

Thus was accomplished on the Protestant 
side what Luther had long wished for, and 
what he thought was best in a correct esti- 
mate of the condition of things. But the 
emperor himself broke up all further fel- 
lowship with them on September 22. On 
the evening of that day he summoned the 
evangelical princes and deputies from the 
cities to the episcopal palace, and communi- 
cated to them the proposal adopted by the 
Catholic States to dissolve the Diet. With 
regard to the subject of religion, " the elec- 
tor of Saxony and the five princes and the 
six cities " should hold with the Church all 
the Articles not finally settled until a general 
council, to be held on April of the next year, 
not in any manner to aggrieve the adhe- 
rents of the ancient faith, to abstain from all 
innovations and to press no one to join "their 
sect," as they had done heretofore. It was 
in vain that the elector of Saxony, for him- 



Il8 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

self and his associates, protested against this 
resolution. Neither was it of any avail that 
Melanchthon handed in through Chancellor 
Briick his so-called Apology of the Augs- 
burg Confession, which he had then already 
sketched out. The emperor and the pope 
had spoken. 

Under such circumstances, nothing else 
seemed to be left to the elector than to 
abandon the Diet. Four weeks before, the 
deputies from Nurnberg had written home : 
" The elector of Saxony has despatched his 
baggage on four wagons. You may expect 
that before long, there will be nobody re- 
maining here." On September 14 the elec- 
toral prince on his return home met Luther 
in Coburg. The elector John took leave 
of the emperor. When he appeared before 
him in the Diet to announce his departure, 
it is said that he made the dedaratfon which 
according to others was made in the same 
words by Chancellor Briick when he deliv- 
ered the Confession : " I am most thorough- 
ly convinced that my doctrine, as it is declared 
in the Confession, is founded upon the Holy 
Scriptures, and that the gates of hell shall 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 1 1 9 

not prevail against it." Perhaps he only re- 
peated Bruck's utterance. It is certain, how- 
ever, that the emperor extended his hand 
with the words, " Uncle, I did not expect that 
from your Grace." The elector left the as- 
sembly with tears which were the evidence 
of deceived hopes and profound grief. This 
occurred on Friday, September 23, after a 
sojourn of twenty-one weeks in Augsburg. 
He left his councillors behind. On the same 
day, John the Constant pursued his journey 
with his retinue toward Nurnberg, on his 
return to Torgau by way of Coburg. 

In the mean time, Luther had done many 
things and had diverse experience in Coburg. 

In reference to the Diet, besides the trans- 
actions with the opponents, two important 
considerations touching the Protestant com- 
munion claimed his most earnest attention. 

The first was the relation to the Confession 
of Zwingli and of his associates and adhe- 
rents, Bucer, Hedio and Capito. It has al- 
ready been stated that, in the beginning of 
July, Melanchthon had informed Luther that 
Zwingli had sent in a Confession of Faith 



120 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

whose doctrines of the Lord's Supper and of 
original sin had received Melanchthon's high- 
est disapprobation. From the same source 
Luther had heard that Bucer and Capito, who, 
with Hedio, represented the cities of Strass- 
burg, Memmingen, Constance and Lindau, 
which were rather inclined toward Zwingli's 
doctrine, had shortly before July 14 arrived 
at Augsburg ; that Bucer, the preacher at 
Strassburg, seemed — in words, at least — to be 
inclined toward Luther's doctrine ; and that 
on this account negotiations were opened be- 
tween the Lutherans and Bucer. Bucer and 
Capito also treated with Luther on this sub- 
ject by letter, but nothing was accomplished. 
For this reason, Bucer, with the knowledge 
of the elector of Saxony, was sent, toward 
the end of September, to Coburg to treat 
with Luther personally. But the result was not 
satisfactory. Luther had declared that he was 
ready to cherish the kindest brotherly affec- 
tion and to promote unity, but that the Zwin- 
glians must cling to God's word alone and give 
up their subtle and unsubstantial explanations. 
Bucer parted from Luther " with the kindest 
feelings," but could not bring about a real 



LUTHER AT COBURG. . 121 

unity. In consequence of this, the Confession 
of the Four Cities — usually called the Tetra- 
politana — prepared by Bucer, was delivered 
to the emperor, but which did not receive any 
consideration as a theological memorial. The 
same fate awaited the Confession of Zwingli. 
The other event which touched Luther's 
heart more tenderly, and which seemed like 
opposition in the camp, was the fierce dis- 
pleasure which the Nurnberg deputies and the 
Hessian theologians manifested toward Me- 
lanchthon for his disposition to yield to the 
enemy. His inclination to allow the bishops 
to exercise certain high civil prerogatives, es- 
pecially excited the indignation of the Nurn- 
berg deputies and brought down upon him 
the severest reproaches. They attributed his 
conduct in this affair to the fear of displeas- 
ing the parties in power — in other words, to 
an abject fear of man. One of them, the 
otherwise worthy Jerome Baumgartner, the 
same who five years before had so persever- 
ingly sought the hand of Katharine de Bora, 
wrote on September 15 to Spengler in Nurn- 
berg : " Hence I beg you, for God and His 
word's sake, that you will also contribute to 
11 



122 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

this end, and write to Dr. Martin Luther that 
he through whom God has again given His 
word to the world would powerfully oppose 
Philip and request the pious princes, especially 
his own sovereign, to warn him and exhort 
him to steadfastness. For at this Diet there 
is no man who has done more harm to the 
gospel than Philip." But he adds : " I do 
not write this willingly of him, because until 
this time he was highly esteemed ;" and he 
concluded with the important declaration: 
" But now the day of trial has come, and, for 
my part, by God's help, neither Luther nor 
Philip shall be so greatly honored by me that 
I would follow either of them contrary to 
God's word." 

Not only did Spengler write on this subject 
to Luther, but he was so beset on all sides 
with complaints about Melanchthon and his 
friends, Jonas, Brentz, etc., that on Septem- 
ber 20 he wrote to Melanchthon and Jonas 
and begged to hear the particulars, and 
whether it was true that they, in the conces- 
sions made to the enemy, had claimed his 
acquiescence ; and in the letter to Jonas he 
exclaims : " If this is so, then the devil has 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 1 23 

brought about a charming disagreement 
among ourselves." 

On the other hand, Melanchthon had al- 
ready written to Luther on Monday, August 
29 : "I am severely censured by our friends 
that I have adjudged to the bishops their priv- 
ileges. For the large majority, once accus- 
tomed to * liberty, and free from episcopal 
authority, will not allow the former burdens 
to be imposed upon them again, and the 
States of the empire hate episcopal rule." 

Melanchthon's other letters, even to the 
time of his departure from Augsburg with 
the elector, are full of similar complaints 
and melancholy apprehensions for the future 
in regard to the government of the Church. 

To Luther himself, shortly before, he sent 
the last packet of papers by Camerarius in 
Nurnberg. But Luther, animated by an in- 
tense anxiety to maintain peace and harmony 
among the believers and by a strong personal 
attachment to Melanchthon, took him, as it 
were, under his protection, and especially 
sought to pacify the friends in Nurnberg. 

He also wrote to Lazarus Spengler on the 
same subject on September 28, and condoled 



124 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

with him upon his regret of having offended 
Melanchthon. 

We must yet consider the labors of Luther 
during the latter period of his sojourn at Co- 
burg. We mention first his Letter on Trans- 
lation. He sent it on September 12 to the 
printer ^ink at Nurnberg. We cannot read 
this production without highly appreciating 
him as a translator of the Bible and re- 
garding his translation with holy reverence. 
For a proper comprehension of it, however, 
we must remember that his well-known en- 
emy, Jerome Emser, in Dresden, secretary and 
councillor of Duke George of Saxony, after 
the prohibition of the translation of the New 
Testament in the duchy of Saxony (1522), 
was ordered by Duke George to prepare a 
translation. He freely used Luther's, or cor- 
rupted it, and yet in his preface he heaps 
shameless abuses upon Luther personally 
and upon his translation. 

Although Emser died in 1527, yet his very 
imperfect New Testament, with its preface and 
its calumnies, continued to live. Hence Lu- 
ther wrote his Letter on Translation as a de- 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 1 25 

fence of himself and for instruction to his 
contemporaries, and, among other things, he 
says : " I have bestowed most diligent care 
upon translating, that I might give the orig- 
inal in pure, clear German, and it often hap- 
pened to us that we sometimes spent fourteen 
days — even three or four weeks — in trying to 
get the meaning of a single word, and even 
then we sometimes failed. In working at 
Job, for instance, Philip, Aurogallus and I 
could sometimes scarcely finish three lines in 
four days. Now, as it is translated and print- 
ed, anybody can read it and master it ; he can 
run over three or four pages with his eyes and 
not stumble once, but he is not aware what 
stones and logs were lying there over which 
he can now pass as smoothly as over a planed 
board, but which we removed out of the way 
only at the expense of toil and sweat. It is 
easy to plough where the field is all clean and 
smooth, but to remove the stumps and prepare 
the field nobody wants or likes to do. We 
must not ask the letters of the Hebrew, Greek 
or Latin languages how to speak German, but 
we must ask the mother in the family, the 
children in the street, the common man in the 
11* 



126 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

market-place, and we must particularly ob- 
serve how they speak, and translate accord- 
ingly ; then they understand and notice that 
we are speaking German to them." He con- 
tinues : " I can declare with a good conscience 
that I have faithfully and diligently pursued 
this work, and have been actuated by no un- 
worthy motive, for I have never asked or 
received a single farthing for it ; neither have 
I sought my own honor therein. God knows 
that I have done it only to serve dear Chris- 
tians and to the glory of One who is seated 
on high, who is constantly bestowing so 
many favors upon me that if I had worked 
at my translation a thousand times harder, I 
would not have acquired merit enough to live 
only an hour or to have one sound eye. I owe 
all that I am and have to His grace and mercy 
— yea, to His precious blood and bitter agony; 
hence everything I do shall be done for His 
glory with all my heart. Let the bungler 
(Emser) malign me; pious Christians will 
praise me together with their Lord Jesus, 
and I am already richly rewarded when a 
single Christian recognizes me as a faithful 
workman." 



LUTHER AT COBURG. \2J 

Besides these more serious labors, he some- 
times amused himself in writing some literary 
trifles, which have been preserved to us in the 
form of fables, which are a good imitation of 
the ancient ^sop. Mathesius, his contempo- 
rary and biographer, dwells at length upon 
these productions of his hours of recreation, 
and praises them for their practical wisdom 
and fidelity to nature. 

During the time that Luther was corre- 
sponding with friends in Nurnberg and Augs- 
burg concerning Melanchthon, he informed 
the latter, on September 15, that the day be- 
fore the electoral prince, with Count Albert 
of Mansfeld, had unexpectedly arrived at Co- 
burg Castle, and had presented him with a 
gold ring. Concerning this he writes : "That 
I should know that I was not born to wear 
gold, the ring immediately fell from my finger 
on the floor (for it was too large for me). 
Upon this I said, 'Thou art a worm, and no 
man ; such presents should be made to Faber 
and Eck; a leaden bullet is better suited to 
thee, or a rope round thy neck.' " These words 
were not merely jocular, but one of the nu- 



128 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

merous evidences of his humility and mod- 
esty, which his letters from Coburg sufficiently 
show. To give only two examples. On Au- 
gust 24 he wrote thus to Melanchthon : " Re- 
cently I have been attacked with a soreness 
of the throat. If Christ only conquers, it 
will be nothing that Luther is overcome ; for 
he will conquer when Christ achieves the vic- 
rory." Two days after he wrote to Brenz 
upon his exposition of the prophet Amos, 
and sets forth the superior character of Brenz's 
style in comparison with his own with a can- 
dor, modesty and self-consciousness of which 
great minds alone are capable. 

That ring which Luther received on Sep- 
tember 14, 1530, from the hands of the Ernes- 
tine electoral prince John Frederick, was pre- 
sented more than one hundred years after 
(1652) to the Albertine electoral prince John 
George I. by Luther's great-grandson, John 
Melchior Luther, a councillor in Wurzen. 
The prince, who died in October, 1656, took 
it with him into his coffin, and the cathedral 
at Freiberg has for over two hundred years 
enclosed this memorial of Luther's residence 
at Coburg. 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 1 29 

During all this time the Diet at Augsburg 
had entirely lost all attraction for Luther. 
The ravens, also, on the south side of the 
fortress, had long dissolved their Diet, and 
storm and rain raged so fearfully around it 
that Luther, suffering from bronchitis and 
toothache, became heartily weary of his stay. 
And yet he did not avail himself of the priv- 
ilege of travelling home with him, granted by 
the prince during his visit on September 14. 
" I begged him," he writes to Melanchthon, 
" to permit me to await you here on your re- 
turn home, that I might wipe away your sweat 
after this hot bath." 

On September 23, just as he was about de- 
spatching to Hausman the letter mentioned 
above relating to the peace negotiations, he re- 
ceived from the elector himself the information 
that he would leave Augsburg on that day. On 
the next day he sent the elector's letter to his 
wife, and wrote : " I hope now, God willing, I 
will be at home with you in fourteen days." 

He received some presents during his resi- 
dence at Coburg, among which was one from 
Melanchthon, which was a picture of the 
siege of Vienna in 1529. Another from a 
I 



I30 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

titled friend in Augsburg gave occasion to the 
following letter : " The two boxes of sweet- 
meats kindly sent by you have been received, 
for which I return my sincere thanks. . . . 
During this summer I have suffered much 
from roaring in my head. I do not know the 
origin of it, for in all things I have been ab- 
stemious. I think it is the work of that an- 
gry fellow from hell who cannot endure me 
in his kingdom upon earth, but perhaps God 
will soon help me out of it, amen ; with grace, 
amen. It gives me pain to hear that God's 
word in Augsburg must keep still and give 
place. It is not specially a good sign. God 
help me and us all! Amen."' 

He congratulated the elector on his depart- 
ure from Augsburg in these words, written 
October 3 : " I most heartily rejoice that your 
Electoral Grace has, with God's help, escaped 
out of the hell of Augsburg. I have com- 
mended the cause to my God. He has begun 
it — that I know ; He will also carry it out — 
that I believe. As it is His and it is not left 
to our hands nor skill, I will see who those 
are that want to be so refined and expert as to 
boast that they can do more than God him- 



LUTHER AT COBURG. I3I 

self. Let things proceed as they are doing, 
in the name of God. Let them go on and 
threaten as they will, but to carry out and 
perfect their schemes, that they will not be 
allowed to do." 

At the same time, as a faithful servant of 
his electoral master, he brings to his notice 
various oppressions which the officers of the 
household had exercised upon their subordi- 
nates, and which he himself had observed 
during his six months' "housekeeping here in 
Coburg." He also presented, in the name of 
the " keeper of the common treasury," a " pe- 
tition/' with the apology " that he could not 
decline doing this, because I am a guest here." 
He also begged the elector to excuse " Dr. 
Apel '"' for absenting himself from the castle. 

Thus many of his letters written at Coburg 
contain petitions and recommendations in be- 
half of others who sought his good offices 
and his influence. 

But nothing could give his residence at Co- 
burg and his correspondence a more brilliant 
termination than his letter to the court-musi- 
cian of Bavaria, Ludwig Senfel of Munich, 
dated October 4. To secure its safe delivery 



132 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

in Senfel's hands, he sent it to the Nurnberger 
deputy in Augsburg, Jerome Baumgartner, 
with a letter, at the conclusion of which he 
makes a sportive, allusion to the former tender 
inclination of Baumgartner to Katharine. He 
says : " I salute you in the name of my lady- 
master, formerly your flame, and I will tell 
her this when I shall get home. I now some- 
times tease her with mentioning your name." 

The principal design of writing to Senfel, 
which was in Latin (for the chapelmaster was 
well acquainted with that language), was to 
request him to compose a piece for four voices 
on one of his favorite hymns, In pace in id 
ipsum. But the letter was chiefly made up 
of a eulogy on music, which entitles Luther's 
name to hold an eminent place in the history 
of sacred music especially. This last letter 
from Coburg is the following : 

" Grace and peace in Christ ! Although 
my name is so depised that I am apprehen- 
sive that this letter, my dear Ludwig, may 
not be kindly received or read by you, yet my 
love for music, with which God has so adorn- 
ed and endowed you, has overcome my fears. 
This reverence for the divine art inspires me 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 1 33 

with the hope that this letter will be of no 
disadvantage to you. For who, even among 
the Turks, would blame him who loves the 
art and praises the artist? I also commend 
and honor your dukes of Bavaria, even if they 
are not very well disposed toward me, yet 
because they cherish music and hold it in 
high esteem. There is no doubt that the 
seeds of many virtues are lodged in those 
minds which are devoted to music, and those 
who are not moved by it I regard as stocks 
and stones. For we know that music is in- 
tolerable to the devils. I maintain the opin- 
ion, and am not ashamed to declare it, that, 
next to theology, there is no art that can be 
compared with music ; because it alone, after 
theology, does that which otherwise theology 
alone accomplishes — namely, in tranquillizing 
the mind and promoting a cheerful, happy 
temper. The proof of this is that the devil, 
who occasions gloomy apprehensions and tur- 
bulent confusion, flies before music and its 
sweet sounds with almost the same celer- 
ity as from the language of theology. The 
prophets have employed no art except music ; 
they did not clothe their theology in the Ian- 



134 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

guage of art or of geometry or arithmetic or 
astronomy, but in music. Theology and mu- 
sic were closely associated, and hence they 
declared the truth in psalms and songs. But 
why should I even begin to commend it on so 
small a sheet of paper, and paint, or rather 
disfigure, a great subject on a narrow canvas ? 
But my ardent inclination to it bubbles up in 
me so violently that I am often refreshed and 
rescued from deep despondency and discour- 
agement. 

" I appeal to you again, and pray that if 
you have any melody to the hymn, In pace 
in id ipsum, that you would copy it and send 
it to me. I have known that hymn from my 
youth and it has always quickened me, but I 
have never heard it sung by several voices 
together. But I will not ask you to take the 
trouble of composing a new tune for it,*but 
I hope you may already have one. ... I have 
already begun to sing this hymn in view of 
my early death, and am very anxious to hear 
it sung according to a suitable tune. If you 
have none and do not know one, I hereby 
send it to you ; so that after my death, if you 
will please, you may compose a melody for 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 1 35 

it. The Lord Jesus be with you eternally. 
Amen ! Excuse my boldness and loquacity. 
Salute your whole musical choir very rever- 
ently." 

In the mean time, the elector had arrived in 
Nurnberg on September 27. To the question 
of the Nurnberger council, What is to be done 
under present circumstances ? he answered, 
that he firmly hoped that God would gra- 
ciously protect and uphold His word and its 
confessors; that he would himself enjoin it 
upon his spiritual and civil councillors to cher- 
ish and promote the cause to the utmost of 
their power ; and that the council of Nurnberg, 
in fellowship with the other cities of the Augs- 
burg Confession, would do the same. Time 
would determine what other further measures 
should be pursued. 

A few days after, the elector, with Melanch- 
thon, Jonas, Spalatin, Agricola and the other 
retinue, came to Coburg. What a meeting 
this was to Luther after six months' separa- 
tion, and after such momentous events in 
view of a not less momentous future ! How- 
ever, the basis of a permanent communion 



I36 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

was laid with the Augsburg Confession. 
Confidence in God and a consciousness of 
right steeled the hearts of these pious men 
for every conflict before them. Luther was 
then, and continued to be, the ruling spirit, 
when, two years after, on August 16, 1532, 
the elector John the Constant was called away 
from faith to sight, and John Frederick the 
Magnanimous, the last elector of the Ernes- 
tine branch, became the successor of his fa- 
ther, who died in the faith of the Augsburg 
Confession. 

On the 5th or 6th of October, Luther left 
Coburg in company of the elector; on Satur- 
day, the 8th, they reached Altenberg ; the fol- 
lowing day they arrived at Grimma ; on the 
1 oth, at Torgau, where Luther on the next 
Sunday, the 16th, preached in the electoral 
castle chapel. 

The Diet still continued to November 19. 
On this day the dissolution was solemnly pro- 
claimed. The time previously determined at 
which the Protestants should return to the 
Roman Church, April 15, 15 31, was men- 
tioned in the proclamation. The refractory 
were threatened with the application of force. 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 1 37 

Thus ended the Diet of Augsburg in the 
year 1530. 

On November 24 the emperor Charles, with 
King Ferdinand and many followers of exalt- 
ed rank, hastened away from Augsburg and 
proceeded to Cologne. Quiet was restored to 
the theatre of the Diet. The curtain had 
fallen. 

Soon after his return from Coburg, Luther 
wrote two papers relating to the Diet. One 
was Comments of Martin Luther on the 
Alleged Imperial Edict. By that he meant 
the final decree of the Diet. He called it 
" Imperial Edict " as far as it was accepted by 
the emperor and his adherents, but by far not 
by the States of the empire. Besides, the 
seal of the council of Augsburg was not at- 
tached to it, and this was contrary to the 
standing and acknowledged order of things. 
He used the word "alleged" because he by 
no means regarded " the pious emperor 
Charles " as the originator or author, but 
the traitors and ungodly men who used 
the emperor as their instrument These com- 
ments illustrated the demands and threats of 
12 * 



I38 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

the edict in the light of the gospel and of 
justice. 

The other writing, or paper, was Admo- 
nition to my dear Germans. This is a Chris- 
tian, patriotic warning against everything*un- 
christian and ungerman in the Christian Ger- 
man Church. Alluding to the fruitlessness of 
his Admonition to the Clergy, he now turns to 
the German people, represents the danger 
which now threatens the gospel, and in op- 
position to his former opinions he now, for 
the first time, openly declares the necessity 
of opposing armed force to any armed attack 
that might be made uport the gospel. In the 
mean time, and before the appearance of these 
two writings, the meeting of the Protestant 
princes and cities at Schmalkald was held on 
December 22, 1530, at which was laid the 
foundation of the subsequent Schmalkald 
League, by which the position of the Reforma- 
tion to the affairs of the state was more defi- 
nitely determined. This league was one of 
the results of the severe and minatory decree 
of the Diet of November 19, 15 30. When, 
sixteen years later, immediately after the death 
of Luther, the so-called Schmalkald Warbroke 



LUTHER AT COBURG. 1 39 

out, the elector John Frederick of Saxony and 
the landgrave Philip of Hesse, together with 
their associates of the league, could console 
their consciences with what Luther had writ- 
ten to Wenceslaus Link from Coburg on Sep- 
tember 30, 1530: "They have the Confession, 
they have the gospel. If they wish, they can 
accept it ; if not, they can leave it alone. If 
a war ensues, it zvill come out of that ; and let 
it come : we have prayed and done enough? 

As in the course of time everything changes, 
so the theatre of Luther's activity and life in 
Coburg has also submitted to the dominion 
of change. " The little clump of trees, which 
is called the grove," and in which the daws 
and ravens held their council under Luther's 
window, has for a long time been extermi- 
nated. Even the old " Fortress Coburg " has, 
through the influence of time and art, under- 
gone many essential alterations within and 
without. " Tne Luther Chamber" itself has 
been clothed in the dress of modern times, 
and the inscriptions with which Luther's 
hands covered the ancient undecorated walls 
have long been effaced. But " Luther in Co- 



140 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

burg " itself is still the same " momentous 
event " which it was three hundred and fifty- 
three years ago, and it will so continue as 
long as his memory lives. Man himself de- 
cays and everything earthly around him waxes 
old, but true greatness and the fruits of right- 
eousness perpetuate their divine influences to 
the latest generations. 

" Luther in Coburg ! Momentous event !" 
Overflowing source of unshaken moral hero- 
ism and of unchanging Christian fidelity, 
many heart-quickening hours have I spent 
with thee in spiritual intercourse during the 
past year ! How often in the silent winter 
nights has the deep-toned knell booming forth 
from the neighboring church-steeple at mid- 
night roused me from profound contemplation 
on thy greatness ! and always has the sum- 
mer's earliest morning hour called me back 
to this sketch of thy glorious t career at Co- 
burg. And now thy picture stands before my 
eyes — not clothed in the garment of romantic 
art, but in nature's simple reality, although 
but a feeble reflection of what thou really 
wert as a living man. Many a lineament of 



LUTHER AT COBURG. I4I 

force do I miss in this portrait. Such features 
must necessarily fail, because the age in which 
thou didst flourish was of more decided char- 
acter than ours, which would find it hard to 
endure such exhibitions of moral power as 
thou didst show. But, even with this defect 
in my picture, it still displays thine original 
and unapproachable greatness. A fervid en- 
thusiasm for Christ the Redeemer and a warm 
sympathy for all the human race are deeply 
impressed upon thy countenance. Profound 
earnestness in the prosecution of the battle 
for the faith and in all that concerns the war- 
fare of men in this tempest-tossed life, com- 
bined most closely with a cheerful Christian 
temper amid temptation and sorrow, beams 
from thine eye upon all who look up to thee ; 
upon those noble descendants of the pious 
forefathers who were thy protectors and pat- 
rons ; upon all who in the present day in all 
parts of*the world believe the truth as it is 
set forth in the glorious Confessions of the 
Church. 

Spirit of the Living God, thou who hast 
also spoken through thy servant Luther, build 



142 LUTHER AT COBURG. 

up thy Church, founded upon the imperishable 
basis of thy word, higher and higher as a tem- 
ple of pure and spiritual worship ! Consecrate, 
glorify the whole Christian world, from the 
palace to the cot, as an assembly who shall be 
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 
light ! Preserve thy Church from schism ! 
Promote concord within her borders ! Aid 
all who profess the name of Jesus to secure 
the assurance and blessings of that faith which 
is active in works of charity ! Thus will Thy 
kingdom come upon earth. Then there will 
be one fold under one Shepherd, and the 
promise will be fulfilled, " Fear not, little 
flock ; for it is the Father's good pleasure to 
give you the kingdom." May that God grant 
this who is a strong tower and secure ref- 
uge for all believers all the world over and in 
all generations ! 



THE END. 



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